King of the Fall
by Logic Over Logic
Summary: I was born to bring about calamity. To cause destruction on a scale which humanity had never seen before. I was born in the ashes of mankind's wars. Wielding the powers of the Senju, Uchiha, and the gods; I cannot be stopped. I am the King of the Fall.(Dark-AU, Eventual Grey/God/Naruto)(Romance/Angst/Tragedy/Adventure/Drama/Horror and maybe more)(NOT Incest)
1. The Last Days

**Yo,**

**Welcome to my story...I hope you like it.**

**I'm still fairly new to writing so I hope you forgive my grammar, spelling, etc, etc...**

**Some things you'll need to know:**

**The pairing has been decided and it will be a Naruto/Naruko story. This is not incest because that detours people away from stories. You'll find out later why I have their lineage different.**

**Speaking of lineage, Naruto is completely different than in cannon. He is basically an Oc...**

**This world is AU, so many things will be different and also the same. I'll try to keep some stuff close to cannon.**

**The characters are sort of shells of their cannon selves, this is because they were raised in a different world.**

**This world will be extremely dark and unforgivable. The genres are Romance/Angst/Tragedy/Adventure/Drama/Horror and maybe more. I wont shy away from blood, gore, and detailed imagery.**

**This is not some lighthearted thing you read to feel better about the world...Our real world isn't great, so neither is a world with powers like chakra that can turn anyone into a god.**

**Oh, I also don't own Naruto.**

**Enjoy!**

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><p><strong>Chapter 1: The Last Days<strong>

A gust of wind stirred and agitated large fires that crackled and popped as it burnt trees, dead grass, and shrubs in a large clearing with a huge crater in the middle. Large pillars of smoke rose high into the sky, twisting and mixing with the stagnant clouds high above. The moon peaked out from behind the clouds.

A groan sounded out from the crater.

A small boy sat up as he tried to calm his spinning head as his ears were ringing annoyingly. He put his hand to his head and hissed in pain. He pulled his hand back and looked at his now bloody hand. He turned his gaze upward into the sky as the smoke continued to rise.

He wiped his face of sweat and dirt; he moved his bloodied bangs of hair out of his face and sighed.

Where was he?

Why was he covered in blood?

He stood up and tried to climb out of his crater, but clumsily tripped and wobbled the whole way up. Once he reached the top he covered his mouth with his sleeve to protect himself from the smoke and walked off into the tree line in no particular direction.

He spent what felt like an eternity walking through burnt or not burnt sections of the forest. He changed direction several times and his headache wasn't helping his sense of direction.

He continued to wander for several minutes until he came across a very large wall that stood at least 100 feet tall and looked to be a healthy amount thick. It had small guard towers located around its top in multiple locations. Smoke rose from behind the wall in funnels.

The wall spanned as far as his eyes could see.

He walked to it and put his hands on the rough concrete. He looked from right to left, unsure as to where to go. He eventually walked left and kept his right hand dragging on the wall as he walked.

He finally came to a large portion of the wall that had crashed down into rubble. The remnants of a guard tower sat at the bottom along with the large boulders.

The boy turned the corner when a large piece of the wall above crumbled away and came crashing down with a loud crash. He winced at the loud noise and covered his ears, he opened his eyes.

He found a path through the boulders that had a tiny cave as an entrance. He got on his hands and knees and crawled through the tiny opening. When he reached the other side he stood.

He found himself looking at several building that were crumbling down and burning. He could see alley ways and houses lining the edge of the wall.

The buildings were burning and crumbling down. One finally gave in and collapsed in on itself. The boy vigilantly walked down an alleyway were several trash cans were located, some were tipped over onto the floor in heaps.

As he walked down the alley way he spotted several houses, shops, and restaurants on the other side of the street. He paused at the corner as the moons light peeked around the corner, almost illuminating him in its light.

He smelled a horrible stench that reeked of decay.

He turned his head around the corner and froze.

There littered on the ground were people sprawled out on the earth, dead. Blood flooded the road with disembodied limbs floating in the substance. The people's faces were contorted into terrified expressions as fly's crawled on their bodies and faces.

A murder of crows cawed and dispersed from their feeding on the bodies.

The buildings were painted in blood and blood dripped from the roof into the puddles below.

He vomited.

He greedily gasped for air as his kept his eyes closed as his mind processed all this. Slowly opened his eyes and wiped his mouth of the vomit. He was surprised at what he found in the bloody vomit pool below him.

His reflection…

The moon shined brightly behind him as his blood stained hair was softly moving in the wind. He had a pale complexion, dried blood and dirt was all over his face. The parts of his hair that didn't have blood stained to it was black, it hung loosely down to his chin, framed his face and hung over his eyes, which he noted to be red.

Wait red eyes?

He took a closer look at his red irises. He could make out a solid black circle that was between his pupil and iris. On that black line were tomoe that spun lazily around the circle. He tore his eyes away from the pool as a building collapsed a distance away from him.

He didn't look over his shoulder, but he hoped his feelings of sadness were enough to show his mourning.

He walked farther into the village as he found many more dead people. The many shops, houses, parks were abandoned and falling apart.

He eventually came across what looked to be a nose made of stone, around it were other pieces that looked to have been several faces. Eyes, ears, mouths, made of stone had crushed the buildings all around.

The large boulders had fallen from the tall mountain that overlooked the village; a large red building at the base of the mountain had been completely crushed from the avalanche. The only thing that had survived was a sign with the kanji for fire on it.

What were those faces for?

They must have been some protectors or something…

He shook his head as he turned into another alley way, he walked down it and rested against the wall, preparing himself for another massacre when he turned the corner. He was about to turn and face the never ending bodies, but immediately froze when he heard a large crunching sound.

He remained completely still as the crunching continued. He finally peeked around the corner and was stunned at the large black thing that was hunched over a human head, ripping flesh and brain out of the broken skull. The crows sat on the roof tops of the houses as they waited for the beast to leave the pile of bodies it were sitting on to get their pickings.

His eyes examined every inch of the huge beast; it was definitely larger than any man, at least seven foot. It had long arms and legs that clawed and ripped at the heads flesh and skull. It had white soulless eyes, and its mouth was lined with white fangs that jutted out in every direction. It breathed out heavy vapor from its mouth.

It was covered in tiny black worm like creatures that conformed around it like a second skin. The black worms would occasionally fall off and cause the pile of bodies below to decay and wilt.

Its long fingers scooped out some more brain matter, and it slurped it into its mouth happily.

The boy covered his mouth with his hand as he returned around the corner and pushed his back against the wall. He started to hyperventilate and was trying to keep himself from making too much noise.

What was that thing?

It looked like something that would have crawled from the dark depths of the earth. It gave off an aura of pure evil.

He had to escape; he was sure that if he was found he would die.

Unknown to him the beast paused and sniffed the air. Its head slowly turned to the alley way. Another sniff, this one much more thorough, it's mouth let out a heavy amount of steam as a weird smile

formed on its fanged face.

The head in his hands was forgotten and rolled down the pile of bodies onto the ground, breaking the remaining parts of the skull which caused brain to ooze out onto the ground. It crawled on all fours down the hill of bodies, not making a sound.

When it reached the bottom it stood on it hind legs and walked slowly to the corner. It set its left hand on the wall and peeked around the corner. It looked down and instantly spotted the hyperventilating boy.

The wall it held started to erode and decay away into a sickly grey color.

The boy seemed to not have sensed him. He just continued to hold his mouth closed with now both his hands and control his labored breathing. His eyes were wide and set forward, refusing to look back at the sight he just witnessed.

The beast raised its right hand and with one quick swipe set out to decapitate the boy. To its, and the boys, surprise the swipe was rolled under causing five larger cuts to form on the surface of the wall. The boy quickly twisted from his stomach to his butt and scooted away from the beast.

He splashed up blood and dust from underneath him as he fearfully watched the beast. It slowly turned to him breathing heavy steam and dripping his acidic worms. It let out a low growl and raised it arm again.

The boy acted quickly and jumped up onto his feet and sprinted into the street. He pushed a vendor's cart which rolled some ways and tipped over with a dull thud. He tripped and fell on some tipped over trash cans when he reached the entrance of another alley way, he ignored the loud roar behind him and clumsily rolled onto his side and picked himself up.

Once he was around the corner the beast came crashing into the corner of the building, sending bricks and wood everywhere. It looked dazed as the boy exited the alley way and continued to run into an apartment building.

He enters the building and found the stairs; he started up them, and paused in the middle of the stairway, which had large gaping hole in the wall. He spotted the beast on a nearby roof, searching for him, he quickly continued up to the second floor.

He found one of the doors to have been broken in and a makeshift barrier was put up to replace it. He climbed over it and found an average looking room that had the standard tatami mats on the floor, a single table in the middle and some cupboards in the corners. The sliding door to a kitchen had been torn down and had holes in them.

The furniture and counters were broken, the lamps tipped over and shattered, cabinets and drawers had been tossed and scattered across the floor and piles of cloths sat in heaps on the ground. The walls were cut up.

He spotted a window on the side he last spotted the beast. He vigilantly crept to the window and leaned his back against the wall next to the window. He waited several minutes as his mind wrapped around how he was alive.

He had one minute been trying to calm himself and the next his whole body was screaming at him to move, so he did and found himself face to face with a monster. He then was able to see with his eyes in slow motion as to every twitch of the beast's body.

He had evaded the large beast with just his instincts to guide him.

He turned his head and leaned to look out the window. He scanned the rooftops, the streets below, and the alleyways for any sign of the monster. When he found none he sighed tiredly and slide down the wall to the floor.

He closed his eyes as his fears lingered in his heart.

He had no clue what was happening. Hell he didn't even have a clue as to who he was. He had lost all his memories. It seemed he still remembered how to do basic thing like read or write. He also remembered normal every day information.

He just didn't remember his past.

His situation became even darker as loneliness and the fear of the unknown consumed him. He shook his head as tears threatened to fall. A sob escaped his trembling lips as both of his hand gripped into his hair; he rocked back and forth trying to sooth himself.

He was his worst enemy in this situation after all.

He had to remember that the beast could be anywhere, but he still wanted to cry his little heart out. He froze when a dull thud sounded out from above him. Dust fell from the ceiling as several footsteps came from the roof and then they stopped. He crawled to the middle of the room, watching the ceiling with sharp eyes.

In the corner of his eyes he spotted another sliding door. He crawled to it and opened it. It led into a small bedroom with a full bed with the night tables tipped over. A window showed the side of a shop that had the owner's living space upstairs.

He heard a small breaking noise below his foot; he lifted it and found a picture frame underneath. He picked it up and inspected it. He found a family of three in it.

The woman had brown hair and kind green eyes; she had a warm smile on her face. Next to her was a man, who had his arm wrapped around her and had a silly smile on his face; he had blonde hair and dark eyes. He was holding a small girl with blonde hair and green eyes which shone with innocence. She was trying to match her father's goofy smile

He turned to a closet and reached for the handle, he paused as a bad feeling formed in his stomach. He slowly slid the door open a margin. It was suddenly flung open by another force. He narrowly avoided a shining grey object that was followed by long blonde hair.

He twisted on his foot, and as if he had done it a hundred times before, swept his assailant off their feet with his leg. He caught the handle of the knife in the air in a reverse grip. He jumped on his downed opponent and put the blade to their throat, drawing blood.

He panted as he examined the shocked face of his attacker. He was shocked to find it was an older version of the girl in the picture. Her face was covered in blood and her eyes had lost the silly, innocent gleam they had in the photo.

She looked dead…

She was hypnotized by his eyes as he gazed at her, equally shocked. She trembled underneath him and tears fell from her eyes. The knife dropped to the floor with a clang when he dropped the knife as she hugged him and cried into his shoulder.

He fumbled and blushed in embarrassment. He tried awkwardly to comfort the girl, but she continued to sob and form incoherent noises, he could only make out things like…

Kaa-chan

Tou-chan

He didn't have to be a genius to connect the dots. The boy closed his eyes in pity and sympathy; he did his best to quiet her.

Suddenly in the main room the remaining glass on the window shattered, along came the wall and the beast entered with it. The glass and wood broke and shattered underneath the beast's feet.

He had cupped the girl's mouth as she almost screamed, He swiftly picked up the knife and put in the back of his pant line. He picked her up and jumped into the closet, a moment before the beast set its sights on the bedroom.

He silently slid the closet door closed as the beast entered the room. Its heavy breathing emitted steam as it searched around the room. He kept his hand over the girl's mouth as tears streamed down her face.

The beasts looked at the closet.

The girl whimpered as his hand edged for the knife in his pant line. The beast peered through the horizontal openings that lined the door. It turned and let out a low rumbling growl as it exited the room.

They remained still for what felt like an eternity. He finally slowly slid the door open and peered out into the main room, He took steady steps forward as he scanned outside of the door. Once he was satisfied it was gone he gently looked at the girl.

He found her uninjured, he sighed as she took him in fully. Her eyes went wide as they traced the dry blood that splattered his body. She pushed herself into the corner and sobbed.

She looked at him with new found fear.

Fresh tears sprung up and she buried her face into her hands. He frowned and took a step forward, only

for the girl to scoot farther into her corner.

He knelt and put his hands in the air, he smiled at her. "Are you hurt?" He asked her softly, not wanting to scare her and not wanting that creature to come back. She remained silent as he closed his eyes; he looked toward a dresser that had a shattered mirror on it.

He finally realized how evil he looked with his long blood stained hair, red eyes, and blood and dirt all over his face and clothes. He used his shirt sleeve and wiped away some of the blood on his face, only small splotches remained, he turned back to her.

"Gomen…I can't get rid of these." He pointed to his red eyes, he didn't know how to and he didn't want to.

She looked at him warily, not trusting him. He continued to smile friendlily. "We should go. That thing might come back." He didn't have time to calm the girl down; the beast could come back with more of its kind.

He turned around in his crouched position, He looked over his shoulder. "I won't hurt you." He promised as she slowly started to accept him. She timidly crawled out of the closet, and getting the signal, climbed onto his back.

He adjusted her and stood fully, she wrapped her legs around his abdomen and arms around his neck.

He peered out into the main room and sighed in happiness when he found it empty. He stepped into the room and looked over his shoulder with a small smile. "Mind telling me your name?"

She remained quiet as he looked into the kitchen. "Midori…" She said timidly as he nodded distracted by his thorough search of the kitchen. He paused when he tried to pull deep into his mind and find at least his own name.

"…"

"Naruto…" He answered her unasked question, tasting the words on his tongue for the first time; it was the only name he could remember. She gave him a small nod as he stepped onto one of the sliding door to the kitchen.

Naruto's senses set off as he spun on his foot, about half way a hard force sent him flying into the kitchen. He lost his extra weight somewhere along the way. He hit a counter and his air forcefully left him. He panted and gasped for air as his wide eyes found the beast on all fours looking at him. Blood leaked out of the edges of Naruto's mouth.

Instead of jumping away he jumped towards the slash that ripped apart the counters. He rolled under it and grabbed one of the fallen doors, pushing it into an upright position.

It was shredded into pieces by the beast's claws. Naruto's eyes found the girl laying on the floor he jumped to her and scooped her into his arms. He ran back into the bedroom, tossed Midori into the closet and jumped onto the bed, narrowly dodging a tackle from the beast.

It hit the wall and a large portion of the wall were the window had been was taken out. Naruto grabbed the bed sheet as the beast turned to him, its long claws grabbed for him. Naruto used all his weight to pull the mattress off the bed into a vertical position. The claw came through the makeshift shield.

Naruto ran around behind the beast toward Midori, he grabbed her hand as the monster freed itself from its small confinement.

Naruto started for the door, but their path was blocked by beast when it jumped in front of them. Naruto turned around and without hesitation ran toward the hole in the wall, knowing they were being followed.

He leaped out of the hole, pulling Midori with him. He grabbed the edge of the building and hit the wall with a thud. He groaned when added weight stretched and strained his body downward. Midori screamed as they dangled from the ledge, she held onto Naruto for dear life.

Naruto looked over his shoulder and found the beast backing away from the wall; his eyes went wide when he realized what it was going to do. In a burst of speed it jumped out the hole right at them. They collided and the wall easily broke and they were sent into the small apartment.

Naruto was sent flying and crashed into a table. He fell silent when he stopped, blood leaked out of his mouth and he panted, the tables broken pieces laid on top of him. The walls debris laid scattered about.

Midori's scream pushed Naruto into an upright position.

The beast was hovered over her holding her down with its hands. Where its hands were her skin was turning a sickly black color. Worms fell off the beast and landed on her shoulder. The worms burrowed into her skin as she screeched in agony. The worms highlighted the veins around her shoulder and pulsed sickly.

Without hesitation the monster tore out a piece of her jugular, blood splattered everywhere. Blood landed on Naruto's face as his eyes went wide, rage over took him; he pushed up on his feet which caused the remaining table debris to fall off him and grabbed the knife in his pant line.

In a fury he launched himself at the unsuspecting beast and stabbed it in the eye. It released her neck and screeched in pain and stood onto its hind legs, hitting the ceiling. With one swift wild hit, Naruto was sent flying away once again.

He landed and groaned in pain. His energy was waning, he couldn't keep going. A sense of dread built in him as the beast calmed down and looked at him. The worms had started to cover its now missing eye. It took a step forward.

Large cracks formed on the floor as the wood groaned and creaked under all the weight of the debris and monster. Naruto went pale as he remembered how high up they were.

They all let out screams when the floor comes crashing down below them, sending dust and wood everywhere. The dust cleared out as Naruto groggily opened his eyes finding himself cover in a dome of wood and debris. He felt a searing pain in his stomach and reached to touch it, only to feel the rough touch of wood.

He glanced down to his stomach and found a wide sharp wood piece protruding from his stomach. Blood leaked from the tip and dribbled down the wooden spear. Panic set in as he felt feeling in his body leave him.

His blood turned cold when he heard rustling to his side, he peered through his confinement and found the beast rising as debris fell off it. It was panting as steam came out of its mouth it one remaining eye was away from him.

It picked up Midori, whose face was twisted into terror and set into a scream. It lifted her over its head. Naruto tried to from words from his dry mouth and yell at it to eat him instead. He froze when he noticed something.

Midori was torn in half.

It started to rip pieces off her corpse and eat her bit by bit; all he could do was watch it greedily eat her. The monster licked the blood off her body. When it was satisfied with its feast it threw the unrecognizable body away.

The monster walked out of the collapsed house, not even bothering to search for him. Naruto remained silent as he nodded off into unconsciousness, dark bags hung under his eyes as his tiredness overwhelmed him.

While he sat there he couldn't help the tears that fell down his pale cheeks. He laid in his own puddle of blood as he cried when the whole situation came crashing down on him.

Thousands had died, he cried for all the people that laid in the streets.

He cried for Midori and his failure at not being able to protect her.

He finally cried for his inevitable end. There was no use in trying to remove the wood from his stomach; he was going to join the other souls in the afterlife.

His head tilted to the side as his cried in angst, he had experienced something no one should have. He had witnessed enough for one lifetime. There was no way he would be a normal person after today.

He wanted to die.

He finally accepted his fated, his vision began to fade into black as his crying seized and his body stopped trembling. He closed his eyes in peace as he embraced his death.

Silence remained as a gust of wind made the nearby houses groan and shift slightly. The fires continued to burn brightly. The crows and vulture picked skin off the corpses and cawed at each other.

Suddenly a black spiral appeared out of nowhere and out came a man. He was on the roof top of a house in front of the collapsed building. His lone eye, that had produced the spiral, scanned his surroundings.

Once he spotted the black haired boy his red eye scrunched up in interest. Was this him? He walked slowly toward the pile of debris.

His black cloak blew in the wind along with his long black hair he pulled off the wood, brick, and roof tiles. He touched the boys pulse and after a moment absorbed him into his spiraling dimension.

He stood fully as and gave one last good look at the place. He started to absorb himself, he smirked under his mask. "Interesting…"

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><p><strong>So...<strong>

**What'd you think? Good, great...bad, terrible?**

**I've had this written for awhile and haven't known if I should post it and continue...**

**It's all up to you guys to let me know.**

**Anyway, many things will be revealed and kept hidden through the course of the story. To be honest, I don't have a clear image as to everything that's going to happen, but I have _some_ ideas.**

**Don't assume things are the way they seem to be. I'll have lots of hidden twists.**

**Hmmm, what else(I feel like i'm forgetting something)...Oh well! **

**Drop a review if you'd like,**

**See Ya!**


	2. Black Parasite

**Yo! **

**Welcome back for another chapter. **

**I'm glad that people are liking the story so far, but you're probably wondering 'WTF is going on!?**

**Don't worry, allow me to feed you a small portion...**

**Anyway...I didn't really put as much effort into this one as the first, with good reason because I had the first chapter done for months pondering on how I wanted to have it done and if I even wanted to post it. SO I had more time to refine it. Oh well. I hope this one is satisfying enough for a few days and one sleepless night of work.**

**Once again I apologize for any mistakes...**

**Enjoy!**

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><p><strong>Chapter 2: Black Parasite<strong>

"Well…?"The masked man questioned another who was moving around hastily grabbing supplies as he went. A child was laid out on a stone slab that was being used as a makeshift table.

The boy on the table was about ten years old. He had silky black hair which was matted down to his face by sweat. He was a sickly pale color and looked worse for wear with a giant hole in his stomach. Deep bags hung under his eyes and he was panting harshly trying to get air into his flooded lungs.

They were located in a large high ceiling cave with multiple rooms and tunnels that branched out from the main area. On one wall was a bunch of cloaks and weapons of all different types. A a single rugged wood throne sat in the middle.

The man diligently working on healing the giant hole in the boy's stomach, he connected tissue and muscle with Medical Ninjutsu.

Well he couldn't really be called a man.

It was a thing that was half white and half black. On both sides he had a Venus flytrap extension that had opened up on either to reveal him. His white half had green hair and a yellow eye. His black half also had green hair and a yellow eye.

The masked man's mouth formed a thin line. _"He should feel better once I complete the surgery."_ The white half said, as if trying to sooth the man. **"Or he could die.**" Another gruffer voice noted. The plant man was not a single entity, but two.

The masked man grunted. "That would be most unpleasant." He walked across the room and sat on the wooden throne. He crossed one leg over the other and lazily laid his head on the palm of his hand that he propped up on the side.

"I cannot lose my key piece in this game." The masked man said mysteriously._ "You shouldn't have sent him on such a mission then!"_ the white half chided, the black half grunted.** "He is in a completely different form…you barely recognized him."** The black one said boredly as they finished up the mending the remaining flesh and muscle.

The plant man finished his job by wrapping the boy up in bandages and turning to him fully. **"If he did not return to his original form then something happened."** The black half said cryptically. _"He must have had something happen as to where he was not able to return to his original power level."_The white half reiterated.

The masked man slammed his hand down and shot up from his seat. "Are you suggesting something Zetsu!?"He yelled threateningly. He could not have these types of results. It was simply unacceptable for when he was finally ready to move on with his plan.

**"He might have simply lost his memories from the time after he…"** Black Zetsu trailed off after he stated what they were all thinking. _"We must be patient then…Do not force him to remember."_ White Zetsu warned.

_"Even though he is special, he is still human."_

**"We should keep an eye on him for now, Obito."**

Obito's hands clenched into fists as his jaw went rigid. Zetsu was right he couldn't simply force the human mind to remember something

Well at least at the moment he couldn't…

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><p>(Several months later)<p>

Naruto put a hand on his pounding head and groaned in displeasure. He shifted his weight and felt the soft touch of a blanket brush against his skin. He let out a slow breath to sooth his migraine.

"I'm not dead…" he whispered the words into the silent room his voice echoed off the wall of his small room. He was in a single bedroom room with no other notable feature besides a light hanging from the ceiling.

"Indeed," Another voice sounded out from behind him. Naruto eyes shot open and he quickly spun around and faced a masked man with long hair.

Obito's eye scrunched up in delight when he saw the familiar eyes from before.

Naruto's eyes were a deeply, rich, clear, and icy blue, a nonexistent eye color among Uchiha's and many other clans.

He was the person he had gone looking for in the first place.

"Where am I?" Naruto asked calmly, not at all freighted by his presence anymore. The boy had the same adaptable traits he had from before. "You're in our base…"He paused as Naruto gave him a confused looked.

Obito walked to the side of the bed and met eyes with the boy. Naruto's eyes widened slightly," He has the same eyes!" He thought in surprise. As he looked into the same blood red eyes that he had before in…that…village.

Naruto eyes widened as all his grief fell down onto him once again. He had only remembered now due to him trying to find out where he exactly was. His subconscious simply tried to shield him for as long as possible.

Naruto's eyes went wide and his hands clenched the bed sheets below him. His stomach turned as the images came back to him. He trembled as tears threatened to fall.

"Such pettiness…To think you would be reduced to this." Obito thought distastefully. "Do you remember anything?" Obito asked. Naruto shook his head; Obito sighed and put a hand on Naruto's head.

"How should I tell you?" He asked rhetorically, faking sympathy.

"We were…acquaintances." Naruto looked at him with wide eyed. "We were partners that wished for a better world." Obito continued his charade, "You were sent on a mission and then you lost your memories…" He let the information sink in, his hand slid off Naruto's head as he walked to the door.

"Why should I believe you?"

_"Smart boy…"_Obito thought dryly.

Obito redirected his attention on him. "I mean I'm just a kid." He motioned to his small frame. Obito chuckled. "While true…how do you suppose you were able to escape that Dark One?"

"Dark One?" Naruto questioned.

"Ah... I have forgotten you have been out for months." Obito said with a false sense of disappointment in himself. "They're the name we have given to those beasts." Naruto looked down once again as he remembered them.

"The Dark Ones are vicious beast with a single nature to kill any human. As far as we have observed they only eat humans and don't eat anything else."

"With the exception of being provoked by animal's stupid enough to attack them."

"A evil that hates other evil." He added.

Naruto's mouth formed into a thin line, an unreadable expression on his face. "So anyway you were able to live because you were strong from the training you have gone through…"

"You trained me?"

"Mhmm," Obito nodded after a moment. "I would like to keep up with your training as well."

"You will slowly regain your lost memories." He smiled, "I guarantee it." He said with a fake tone of optimism. "If not I'll force it out of you…" He thought in annoyance.

Naruto remained silent and pondered on the thought, "Okay…" He said after a few moments. Obito smirked under his mask. "Well then lets us begin."

"I will not fail this time…"

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><p>(3 years later)<p>

The spiraling black vortex announced his return to his hideout. He had replaced his plain black cloak for a high collared black cloak with red clouds. His old mask had been exchanged for an orange mask that spiraled out from his right eye. His hair was also cut short.

His single sharingan eye scanned the room as he looked for the only other occupants of the silent cave.

He watched Zetsu materialize out of the ground with his high collared cloak on as well.

"How is he, Zetsu?" he skipped the pleasantries and got straight to it, White Zetsu smiled, **_"Quiet as usual."_** Zetsu turned around and pointed to a lone figure that was sitting completely still, meditating.

The person was a boy of the age of thirteen. He had long black hair that reached his shoulders and covered the right side of his face. His skin was pale and he was beginning to show signs of developing muscles. He was wearing nothing but gray pants and black ninja sandals with tape wrapped up his shins.

"Naruto," Obito said with a commanding tone. Naruto opened his only showing eye and revealed a fully matured Sharingan. Obito smiled to himself, the boys training had not only improved his abilities. It had also returned some of his memories.

He remembered Obito's identity and the plan, of course he had to add the missing links to the chain, but he remembered most of it. He also started to return to his calm and collected self, of course there were still some chinks in the armor.

He would sometimes become an emotional fool and Obito would then scold him and up his emotional training to get rid of such feelings.

Emotions were for fools.

Emotions led to love and love led to hatred; hope to despair, etc. etc.

It simply was not needed for what they were going to do.

His previous knowledge had helped him relearn many of the things he had before and it allowed him to improve on them.

The boy was simply a genius. He could be handed any scroll or book and he would take to it with zeal.

He simply absorbed knowledge.

"I have some work to do with the Grand Council." Naruto gave him a look of passiveness. He simply didn't care about a bunch of fools that thought they were 'changing' the world.

After the fall of Konohagakure, Sunagakure, Tanigakure (Village Hidden in Valleys), Yugakure(Village Hidden in Hot Water), and Ishigakure (Village Hidden in Stones)

The remaining villages of Kumogakure, Iwagakure, Takigakure (Village Hidden by a Waterfall), Kusagakure (Village Hidden in the Grass), Amegakure, Otogakure, Shimogakure (Village Hidden in Frost). All banded together to create the Grand Alliance.

They then created a giant wall that separated their countries from the countries infested with the Dark Ones.

So Hi no Kuni (Land of Fire), Kaze no Kuni (Land of Wind), Kawa no Kuni(Land of Rivers), and Yu no Kuni (Land of Hot Water) were cut off from the rest of the Elemental Nations. The people that were able to escape from the destruction were able to fled off somewhere to the east. Rumors suppose that they were off taking refuge in the islands of Mizu no Kuni (Land of Water).

Of course since Yu no Kuni was between Kaminari no Kuni (Land of Lightning) and the rest of the alliance countries. Kumo was also cut off, but Iwa ninja had cut tunnels to and from the walls that surround the rest and Kaminari's own separated walls.

"I wish for you to meet them…"Obito added, Naruto closed his eyes to control his protest. He wanted nothing to do with them, but he couldn't tell his master that.

"Very well," He said submissively. Naruto stood and walked to his small room and pulled out a simple knee high cloak. He also pulled out a tanto and strapped it to his lower back horizontally, in between a wide pouch that also went across his lower back.

He put on the cloak that went past his hands, concealing them. He brought the hood up and his face was concealed by the shadows. His only notable features were his Sharingan.

He walked back out into the main room and eyed Obito as he arranged some scrolls into his cloak. Obito closed another and pocketed it.

"Information," He clarified simply and walked up to him. Without another word he put a hand on Naruto and absorbed them into his dimension.

* * *

><p>They appeared in a single, circular, high, ceiling room with white floors and walls lined with a golden paint. The room had arches and stone sculptures of some heroes of the past. A large chandelier sat from a chain above.<p>

There were soldiers lining the wall. They were fully armored in white traditional warring clan's armor of plated armor that cover the chest, shoulders, and had guards on their forearms and shins. The shoulder plating was gold and the clothes underneath were plain black pants and long sleeved shirts. Long decorated spears were held in one hand while a long katana was strapped to their sides.

They wore metal headbands that had the kanji for alliance on them.

Naruto assumed these were their elites. Because the very few times he had been out of the cave he had seen the headband, but not the armor.

So he could be safe to say this was the position every one of the alliance soldiers wanted to reach. Of course money and resources were scarce these days so not every soldier could receive the plated armor.

The council sat in high seats with connected desks in front of them two separated stair cases widened out from the side to the floors below. Obito and Naruto had appeared right in front of them. There were four council members in total, a surprising number due to the large amount of countries that formed the alliance.

Of course Naruto could see why the alliance had lasted so long.

The four members were:

The old Sandaime Tsuchikage; Ohnoki.

The old Yondaime Raikage; A.

The leader of Otogakure; Orochimaru

Finally the figurehead of both the Akatsuki and Amegakure; Nagato or Pein.

They were garbed in white kimonos with sashes of gold color that was tied over their right shoulders and black sashes around their waists.

Ohnoki was in charge of architecture and defense, A was in charge of resources, Orochimaru was in charge of research and development, and finally Pein was in charge of the military.

They all made decisions as a council and the votes had to be 3 to 1 or all for if they wanted to get anything done.

Not much did…

"I didn't expect you to bring a guest." Ohnoki said in slight surprise and in interest. A sat quietly and observed the new comer. Nagato or his Deva Path sat with dull uninterested eyes; the Rinnegan glowed with its never ending power.

Their doujutsu met and Deva Paths eyes lit up with interest, but it was gone as soon as it came. Naruto decided to take the initiative and stepped forward, with a bow he introduced himself. "Naruto…" He said politely.

Obito nodded at Naruto, signaling him to step back. He did so silently as Obito took a step forward. "I have brought you the information needed…" He held out several scrolls and two soldiers that were standing in front of the councils members seats, stepped forward and took the scrolls and left the room.

"I didn't expect you to have a student." Orochimaru purred; his face turned upward in a coy smile. "An Uchiha at that…" He could recognize the ever enticing chakra that the Uchiha's possessed, but this boy's chakra was driving him up the wall.

His chakra was so powerful and engulfing that not even Peins chakra could outmatch it. It flowed in precise motions of calm water almost like every move it made was the most important it would make.

The thing that was so enticing to him though was the fact that he could feel emotion from the way the chakra was flowing.

Usually someone's chakra would reflect their inner workings, but this boy held no negative or positive emotions.

It was simply blank with traces of each.

Orochimaru licked his lips, he wanted to dive deeper, but A spoke. "Uchiha are a lost breed…why have you kept silent about this, Tobi?" He questioned with anger. Obito chuckled, "Why allow you to use such potential to breed instead of creating a weapon?"

Naruto simply kept his calm façade, but the last remaining parts of his emotions flared up at the notion of being referred to as a weapon. He of course crushed the emotion as soon as it rose up.

He had no reason to retaliate, he had been saved by Obito and he had no reason not to be considered a weapon.

He had no past.

No future.

Endless potential.

He was bred for war.

He had both the genes of the Senju and Uchiha inside of him.

He also had something else which Zetsu had been unable to decipher. Whatever it was it turned him into a genius of unimaginable scale.

His body was physically fit and never fell into sickness.

He was a perfect being as Zetsu described him.

He was still lacking…

A seethed in anger at Obito's disregard for the future of the bloodline of such a powerful clan, Obito inwardly laughed, he had no plans for the future of his clan. He was simply using the sudden destruction of this world in his favor.

While unexpected he had adjusted accordingly and had continued on. He had subtly slipped the idea into each of the leader heads of the different countries that the only way they were going to survive was by banning together.

So they did and he had been laughing in the shadows as the world fell apart slowly.

These fools sat comfortably in their thrones while the rest of the world starved in poverty and war.

It was funny how leaders never notice their people's plight due to them not wanting to get rid of their self-serving safety that was produced by their positions. They did not want to lose their safe shells of prosperity to face the world's problems.

They wanted to protect themselves.

And when it came down to it, who could blame them on a simple notion of nature?

The nature of protecting one's own existence…

"I simply cannot see the benefit in keeping such a dark clan alive." Ohnoki voiced his thoughts. He was right; the Uchiha had always been on the end of every major problem that had happened in his time.

He wouldn't be surprised if an Uchiha had caused their world to fall apart…

"The Sharingan is a powerful tool…I wish I could get some test subjects to test some experiments on." Orochimaru said wistfully, ah how he missed the times when he could find any number of clans and test their abilities.

But alas the world population had dropped by 2/3rds so he couldn't really start to kill off entire bloodlines for the sake of doing so.

What did you think he was? A monster? Kukuku…

He merely wanted to uncover the truths of the world like any good little scientist does. His methods were just a little more...drastic.

They produce results and that was all that mattered.

The others looked at him in distaste. Naruto and Obito simply didn't care what the snake did in his past.

He now was a powerful and influential leader of the council.

So what if Orochimaru only wanted to protect humanity to continue his unveiling of the truth and his mission to gain ultimate knowledge.

"I have an offer to show you the fruits of my labor." Obito pulled the conversation along. "What would this be…"Nagato asked calmly as he eyed Obito. He had only taken this seat because he wished to further the world's pain by having information on the government's inner workings.

After the plan began he world discard this position to continue to show this world the true meaning of pain.

Obito smiled at his pawn. "I suggest you give my student any mission to complete and he shall do so."

Silence remained as they absorbed the information. Ohnoki snorted, "Cocky are we?"

"You think this boy can complete any mission we give him." He finished with a snort, A agreed. "Of course he can, I am a man of mystery." He smirked in delight at get under their skins by a simple sentence.

Nagato didn't care and Orochimaru was exhilarated at the chance to see the boy in action.

"Have I not failed you? Oh, honorable council member," He bowed deeply as if to prove his point. A scoffed, "I don't care what you do…I've never trusted you and I will never begin to." Ohnoki nodded in agreement.

Oh the irony in how the tables turn when the world collapses. Before the two couldn't agree on a single thing, but now they took each other's sides more often than not.

"I have the perfect mission for you!" Orochimaru said excitedly, he even stood up with a sly grin on his face. Seeing no one protest, he called out. "Bring it in!"

Several soldiers opened a grand door that led into the courtroom. The large door opened fully to reveal a large rectangular shape with a cover over it. It was wheeled in by several people in white garbs with protective medical masks over their mouths.

The head scientist, as it seemed, was a man in his late teens with silver hair pulled back into a ponytail and circular rimmed glasses over sly onyx eyes. He wore the simple white medical garbs that the others did. He had a clipboard in one hand and used the other to bow slightly.

"Grand Council," He greeted them with respect and a small smile on his face. Orochimaru walked down the stairs onto the main floor below and walked up to the rectangular shape, his smile never leaving his face.

A whispered conversation occurred between him and the head scientist. He turned with a glint in his eye. He cleared his throat like he was going to address a large audience.

"I'm pleased to announce that my assistant, Kabuto and I have successfully captured a Black Parasite victim." A and Ohnoki gasped while Nagato looked genuinely surprised. Obito chuckled to himself in silent amusement.

The Black Parasite was the byproduct of the Dark Ones acidic worms touching human skin. It then would burrow in and latched onto the human brain and like a parasite took over the victims mind and turned it into a killing machine. It gave the human primal instinct that caused them to kill anything.

They would then mindlessly continue to exist until its body decayed or collapsed from exhaustion and they would die off from the human body not being able to properly function with just raw meat and no water or rest.

It would tire itself out on its mission of destruction.

Orochimaru unceremoniously ripped the cover off to reveal a cage with thick bars and a low ceiling. They all leaned forward with anticipation.

Suddenly pale sickly hands curled their long slender fingers around the bars. Then revealed slender arms with black splotches that were eating away at its gray skin, a torso came into view with the same look as the arms.

Then its face came into view. Its face was angular and sharp from starvation. Its cheek bones protruded from its face and its mouth was twisted into a permanent smile showing yellow, blooded stained, sharp teeth. It eyes were devoid of any light just two white irises and pupils. Its black hair fell in strands down its face, messy and falling out in clumps.

Almost everyone gasped and recoiled from the site. Orochimaru watched in amusement as he walked in front of the thing.

It let out a low guttural sound. He walked closer as it twitched and trembled with anticipation. Once he was a foot away the things lashed out at him, desperate for food. Orochimaru simply took a step backward.

He turned his back to the thing and walked in front of the other council members. "I wish to test a new substance that quickens the decaying process of the body."

"Wouldn't the body just do that naturally?" Asked A, unsure about that thing being in the same room as him, Orochimaru chuckled. "It does, but the parasitic worms put the body in a sort of stasis when they aren't around humans."

Obito, wanted to applaud the Dark Ones for their adaptability, but refrained from doing so. "They stop attacking everything when their main target is not around…"He paused for dramatic effect, "us." He cackled smoothly.

"They become froze in a slowing process that preserves the last of what the human body had been using to live off before infected." Orochimaru turned back to the infuriated thing as it growl lowly at him, "lets us call this fuel." He said, trying to simplify his explanation, "but once they acquire a target the process is stopped and the decay is accelerated due to the parasite not being able to fuel or feed its host properly."

He took a vial and syringe from Kabuto. He popped the cap off the syringe and held the vial up into the light. It was a deep green substance. He swirled it around and injected the needle into the top. The syringe filled with the green liquid. He handed the vial back to Kabuto and once again turned to his audience.

"This substance basically breaks down everything that the human body needs to survive. Glucose and Nutrients which includes: Carbohydrates, Vitamins, Proteins, Fats and Minerals."

"Since the body is not receiving a constant amount of water the processes that continue to keep

humans alive have begun to struggle to continue processing. The elimination of every last needed Nutrient and Glucose particle will ultimately kill off the victim."

He paused as he looked at each of them. "The body with seize to be able to move, making the body immobile and allowing us to bypass fighting them."

"If they have even a trace of this fuel available they will use them up just to kill a single human…after removing the fuel only then will they die."

They remained silent as they pondered the effects. "How fast does it work?" Naruto asked, Orochimaru smiled, "A few hours."

"What!" A yelled in rage, "That is too slow when we have on a split second to save a life." Orochimaru chuckled, "from a ninja's perspective it is too long, but from a scientific stand point it is completely logical."

"The time required to sweep and destroy a whole systems fuel would take months maybe years, if done naturally and without adding any more fuel…but you have forgotten something." He teased, "Do you remember?"

"The parasite has already started to use the fuel to keep itself alive as long as it has…so they will be low on fuel." Naruto clarified, everyone was surprised by the new information. "Precisely," Orochimaru chirped and looked to the thing in the cage.

"This test subject has been given the lowest of essential needed to stay alive." He paused, "I have become fond of this little guinea pig." He said almost sadly as he snatched the creatures clawing hand and swiftly injected the syringe into its arm with the substance.

It recoiled and whimpered; it looked at its arms and clawed at the decaying flesh there, growling and grunting at the new feeling. Suddenly it roared with pain and ripped away at its arm. Tearing skin and muscle off, it clawed and bit at the searing pain that suddenly flooded its body.

It clawed everywhere scratched the ground its body and the bars; it screeched and curled up into a ball on the floor and writhed with pain. Suddenly it stopped and froze.

It went completely limp and remained still.

Dead…

This all occurred in a few seconds, "Oh what marvelous results." Orochimaru said, looking very pleased. The nurses and doctors scribbled notes on their clipboards and notepads. "A very successful first test."

He shook hands with some of the doctor as they began to collect the syringe and cover, then rolled the cage out of the room.

Leaving everyone in shocked silence…

Even Obito was shocked at the results, he had known Orochimaru was going to be resourceful, but not like this…

A's and Ohnoki's jaws were hanging low and they had shocked expressions.

Pein's had a look of awe on his face.

While Naruto's was completely blank…

Orochimaru cleared his throat, trying to ease the tension. "Since that test subject had been in custody for several weeks, he has been starving itself trying to escape."

"I want Naruto-kun to find a test subject in complete health and to inject the substance and record the results." Obito chuckled, "I'm pleasantly surprised at your choice of going about of getting rid of these…Victims"

"He accepts the mission." Obito added, he looked at the other council members, "Is there any objections?" He knew there wouldn't be, this information could save hundreds of lives.

A cleared his throat and stood, "No…we would just like to send some support for Naruto…just in case something happens." Ohnoki floated out of his chair and flew away without a word, A shushined without adding anything else.

Orochimaru chuckled at their reactions. He turned to Naruto, "Meet me in my laboratory when you are ready…I'll go get this backup ready as well." With that he nonchalantly walked out of the room, leaving Pein, Obito, and Naruto.

Pein stood, and waved away the remaining guards; they exited the room while Pein walked down the stairs and stood in front of the two. "This was quite the interesting outcome." He said calmly as he looked at Obito.

Obito nodded slightly, "Of course, Orochimaru has always been resourcefully." Obito said easily. He wasn't above praising people for their abilities. "Now that my student has been introduced I will be taking my leave."

"What do you plan to do with this boy, Madara?" He questioned.

Obito shrugged his shoulders, "Who knows, but having someone like him will speed Project Tsuki no Me up." Nagato remained silent.

He had felt the boy's chakra and he was surprised by its potent feeling.

"Very well…" He said crisply and disappeared in a plume of smoke, Obito chuckled. He started to absorb himself, "I will inform you of another mission after you complete this one."

* * *

><p>Naruto exited the council room and walked down a grand hall that was lined with paintings and sculptures, many rooms lined the hallway. Many servants and soldiers busily wondered the halls, not paying any attention to him.<p>

If he didn't know any better he would assume everything in the world was going just fine. With people being able to live in such luxury he would assume everyone one else was the same.

That was a level of naivety that most did not possess.

He finally found an open window and decided to take a quick exit. He hopped out the window and floated down to a small roof top connected to a balcony that protruded out from the giant tower.

Naruto used this time to survey the city around him.

He found that the many buildings around the castle/tower were in good condition. They most likely were homes of high ranking officials. A large wall circled around the better homes.

On the outside of that wall were homes in an even worse condition that had broken roof tops and cramped living spaces. The homes were only a foot or two apart from each other, which didn't allow much privacy.

Soldiers in downgraded gear patrolled the streets below while merchants and vendors tried to rip off their customers, which would ignite argument, then fights, and then said guards would arrest the two and haul them off.

Naruto felt his stomach drop.

This place was known as the safe haven of mankind,

Imperial City…

The home to the largest number of survivors of The Last Days, it was a large city that was built in Tsuchi no Kuni (Land of Earth) which was combined with Iwagakure and made Ohnoki in charge of the defensive to the city from outside forces.

The outer buildings were surrounded by an even higher wall that protected them from the outside.

Naruto blinked,

Where was Orochimaru's lab?

* * *

><p><strong>What'd ya think? Hmmm...<strong>

**I haven't written anything in a few months so I'm rusty as hell (I felt like I was lacking at the end)**

**I hope I explained everything well enough for everyone to understand.**

**So as you can see Naruto is an enigma, yep he will be super strong even at the age of thirteen. Don't like? Deal with it! (Hahaha) He also is on the verge of being an emotionless drone...Don't worry I have a plan to deal with that.**

**Oh! On a side note I've decided this is going to be a teeny, tiny cross over with Guilty Crown...you'll have to wait and see what it is though.**

**Drop a review if you'd like, (It would make me SUPER happy)**

**See Ya!**


	3. Mankind's Nature

**Yo!**

**Welcome Back!**

**Not much to say besides, sorry... **

**I was extremely lazy with getting this chapter out, even though this story has been getting a pretty good response. **

**8 reviews, 40 Followers, 19 favorites, and 1,331 views/visitors at this time and it's only been on the site for a little over a week.**

**Pretty good if I might say so myself...you guys are awesome.**

**There are some things in this chapter that reflect my views on the world, so if you don't agree with them that's fine.**

**Anyway, sorry for grammar and all that junk...**

**Enjoy!**

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter 3: Mankind's Nature<strong>

Naruto walked through the streets of the royal district of Imperial city. There was a significantly less amount of people than in the slum district. The elite soldiers and high classed people sparsely walked down the street chatting and smiling brightly.

Naruto looked at the many houses that lined the streets. They were elegant and well kept. He noted that not many shops were around in the royal district. They were only in mass in the slums.

"Hey!" A loud voice yelled, causing Naruto to turn around. It was a large man in the white armor of the elites. He looked angry and was stomping toward Naruto.

Once he reached him he reached out and in one swift motion snatched the back of Naruto's cloak and had him dangling off the ground. "Now they notice me…"Naruto thought dryly. More people gathered at the commotion.

People in kimono's and yakata's, whispered among themselves as the soldier glared at Naruto in suspicion. "Who are you?" He said in a nasty gruff voice. Naruto remained silent, "Tch!" he roughly threw Naruto against a wall, he violently hit his back against the wall.

Naruto landed on his butt gasping for his lost breath. More soldiers gathered and asked the other what was going on. "Found some street rat wondering around." He nudged his head in Naruto's direction. "I'll handle this…"

He turned and walked toward Naruto with a smirk on his face, "Do you know what we do with thieves?" He assumed that was what the boy was. Once again Naruto remained quiet, "Hmph!" He kicked Naruto across the face, causing him to spit up blood onto the dirt road.

Naruto wiped his mouth, "Tough little fucker aren't ya?" He punched Naruto in the face and then kicked him in the stomach, causing him to gasp at the lost air. Naruto slid to the ground and remained motionless, "Damn gaki…" The soldier grunted and then turned to the others.

"Take this brat to the dungeon." He turned around when he heard the sound of fabric rubbing against something. Naruto stood up fully with his hand and back against the wall, his hood finally falling off.

Revealing his cold icy blue eyes, he turned his head in a curious manner. "Do you think that could knock me out?" He asked as he wiped his bloody lip.

The soldier scoffed and threw another punch. "Stay down rat!" Naruto caught his fist and in his other hand his tanto slid out of his sleeve. In a swift motion he cut diagonally and severed the soldiers arm.

His arm fell uselessly to the side as he looked at Naruto in shock. Half of his arm laid on the ground, he was bleeding very bad and looking at the spot where his arm was supposed to be. Bone could be seen and blood vigorously flowed out.

He looked toward Naruto with shocked eyes.

Naruto's calm face and cold eyes looked into the soldiers very own eyes.

"Do you wish to die?"

"Kill this kid!" The soldier yelled at the other soldiers. He fell to his knees and cradled his stub, falling into shock. The others unsheathed their sword and surrounded Naruto, "What is going on here!?" A female voice shouted.

They all turned toward a woman with red lipstick, fair skin, dark eyes and light blue hair in a spiky ponytail. She wore the same armor pattern, but instead of the primary being white it was purple with gold shoulders. The symbol of a striking snake was emblemed on the back of her armor.

"Guren-sama!" A soldier said in surprise. Guren looked at him coldly, "Answer my question soldier!" She commanded firmly. He bowed lowly and then saluted her.

"This rat was wondering the streets." Guren looked at Naruto, she clicked her tongue. "Restrain him; I'll take him to Orochimaru-sama." Naruto's eyes widened slightly.

"Hai" They all yelled.

They were about to attack, but Naruto dropped his tanto and raised his hands. "There is no need to be so hostile." He said politely, "I will come with you if it means no more fighting." He said calmly.

He was not at all afraid of a bunch of samurai wannabe's; they had just been lucky and a little smart to reach their positions. Besides he didn't need to get on half the councils bad side.

Two of the soldiers roughly turned him around and pushed him face first into the wall. They wrapped his hands together with rope and then turned him around and threw him in front of Guren.

Naruto kneeled in front of her and looked up at her. "Shall we?" She clicked her tongue and pulled him up onto his feet by his arm and dragged him along through the crowd.

"Getting there was harder than I thought…"

* * *

><p>(Orochimaru's Lab)<p>

Guren led Naruto through the halls of Orochimaru's lab. Naruto had been surprised to find that his lab was in a secret location in the small forest that was within the cities walls. It was under ground with stone floors and walls with torches lining them.

Many rooms were sporadically placed along the halls. Many of them being empty and only when they started to reach the middle of the base were there more rooms filled with scientists and medical professionals.

The air smelled of sterilizer and the faint scent of iron.

Naruto was led to a room with two large doors that were much more adequate than the others. He was shoved into the wall and was met face to face with his captor. "Listen here brat…"She hissed lowly, as if not to disturb someone.

"If you as much as think of disrespecting Orochimaru-sama than I'll kill you on the spot." She threatened, Naruto tilted his head innocently. "Of course not…" He was having a lot more fun than he thought he would.

Guren dropped him back to his feet and motioned to the two guards to open the door. They did as told having never even acknowledged them before.

Naruto was pulled into a room that smelled of musk, blood, and various other smells that he couldn't decipher. The room had many antiques, vials and jars of things. A throne sat on a high pedestal and many snakes were in cages or were slithering around on the ground, ceiling, or walls.

A sudden screeching yell sounded out from farther in the room. Guren smirked when Naruto frowned; she pulled him along further in. The snakes hissed and coiled-ready to strike-at the new comer.

He was pulled into a back room with cabinets and shelves full of jars that all had organs and various body parts of different species. In the middle was a metal medical table that had intestines falling off it onto the ground and organs lying around the table and floor. Blood methodically dripped from the top to the large pool that had formed below.

There stood blocking the table was Orochimaru garbed in white. The yelling had stopped long ago and only the sick squelching sound of flesh being cut and ripped could be heard.

Guren let him go and bowed on one knee behind Orochimaru. "Orochimaru-sama…" Orochimaru didn't respond, but after a few moments he threw his scalpel on a small cart with vigor and several other torture devices onto it as well.

He turned around with a pissed look on his face, "How will you explain this Guren?" He said lowly in irritation. Guren opened her mouth to tell him what happened, but before she could explain she was surprised to be punched in the face.

Blood oozed out of her busted lip as a bruise formed on her face. Shock was written all over her face as she witnessed Orochimaru walk up to her prisoner and release the rope from his arms.

"I'm so very sorry for this, Naruto-kun." Even more to her shock did she hear Orochimaru apologize.

Apologize?

To some street rat…

"It is alright Orochimaru-sama, I was quite lost, so in the end this worked out." Naruto said in a dismissive manner. Guren looked at him in shock at the two exchanging such…Respect?

She had seen that look in Orochimaru's eye only a few times and that was only when he had found something that interested him greatly.

This time the look was so insanely powerful too…

Guren felt her heart drop.

She shakily stood and wiped her bloody lip. Orochimaru turned toward her, his gold slited eyes looked at her coldly. "Do you realize what you've done?" Guren looked away at the ground and then reset her eyes on Naruto.

He didn't look happy or vengeful.

He was just blank…

What happened to that slightly polite cocky brat?

She looked back at Orochimaru only to avert her gaze when she saw how angry he looked.

It was like she had almost broken something so precious to him that he would kill her.

"No…" she said weakly, she couldn't wrap her head around what was going on, but she knew that boy had everything to do with it.

"This boy is an important part of a very special mission that I personally assigned." Guren felt shocked at the news and felt despair fill her. She knew that when Orochimaru did something personally he didn't like it to be hindered or stopped.

She felt even angrier.

She had been tricked from the start by that kid.

She was used as a useless escort to take blame for his delay.

Orochimaru walked up to her and roughly grabbed her chin. She was pulled up and forcefully had to meet his eyes. "You will be punished severely for this." He hissed out eerily calm. He let go of her like some piece of trash and walked toward Naruto.

With a small smile on his face he said, "How about I get you prepared, Naruto-kun?" Naruto nodded and looked at Guren with a slight frown.

She fell back to her knees as unshed tears filled her eyes.

Orochimaru led Naruto out of the room, leaving Guren to herself.

Her hand clenched the ground.

"I will kill that damn rat…"

Naruto was led into a large office with papers, scrolls and books piled up in every direction. Orochimaru walked around his desk and went through a chest; Naruto stood and examined the room.

Orochimaru pulled out a long wooden box from the chest and put it on his desk. "I have some things that could do you good on your journey." He opened it and inside was a composite bow and a quiver full of arrows.

Naruto picked it up and looked at Orochimaru, "I…" He hadn't been expecting this from someone like Orochimaru. "There is no need to be so shocked Naruto-kun. You're doing this in the name of science."

Naruto couldn't help but feel that wasn't the whole story.

He pulled both out and leaned them against the wooden desk. He looked back inside and saw two long daggers in their sheaths. He picked one up and unsheathed it.

It had a magnificent golden pattern that twisted and waved across the white blade all the way from the handle to the curved tip.

He put them on the desk and pulled out some lightweight armor that covered his chest there was also a thin, black, tight, sleeveless shirt that had a mask on it and gauntlets with seals on the palms. He looked at Orochimaru, "Why would you give all of this to me?"

"I already told you. No need to be so paranoid. Put it on."

He put the sleeveless shirt on then the lightweight armor on over it. Then he put on the gauntlets and then hooked both of his long daggers on his back diagonally to the right.

He put the quiver over the daggers and then finally the bow over all of the other things. He pulled up the black face mask that went up half way and concealed his features. Then put on the gauntlets and examined the seals.

"They're storage seals used for easy access to shuriken and kunai." Naruto sent chakra to his hand and out popped a kunai. "It's a seal matrix that has two layers. One layer is for kunai, which requires only a little chakra. The second layer is for shuriken and you only have to pump a little more chakra into the seal to active it."

Naruto resealed the kunai and narrowed his eyes, Orochimaru watched him with a sly smile. The temperature dropped as Naruto's Sharingan spun to life. "What are you playing?" He said lowly with a threatening undertone.

Orochimaru was unaffected by the sudden attitude change. He chuckled and walked behind his desk and sat down in his chair. "What do you think of human nature, Naruto-kun?" He ignored Naruto's question and asked his own.

This was the final test…

He leaned back in his chair and folded his hands, watching Naruto intensely.

Naruto's eyes remained narrowed as he crossed his arms. "Humans are selfish, are ruled by their emotions and are heavily influenced by their primitive instincts." He stated bluntly, his eyes met Orochimaru's. "They're controlled by self-interest. They may put up a front to cover up their nature, but if the opportunity presents itself they will reveal their true nature."

Orochimaru looked deeply into those powerful eyes that he had longed for. "They're motivated by ambition, desire, greed, gratification, materialism, goals and are vain, arrogant, and narrow minded. They are full of egotistic and narcissistic qualities." Naruto didn't look at all frustrated or disapproving of man's nature.

Orochimaru chuckled, "That is called cynicism Naruto-kun." He stood with a satisfied look. "Do you think that humans are not as important or above any other species with their vile nature?" He asked another question.

"No, humans are unlike any other species due to our abilities to form advanced culture, societies and to feel ethics and morals. But humans understand each other because of them being a part of the same species just like any other species. This causes them to build relations and reach out to each other." Orochimaru was surprised by this; he had never realized that someone so young could have such a deep understanding.

This boy was special…

"Humans like other animals share basic emotions." Naruto closed his eyes. "But Humans have a more advanced set of emotions and can express them through language."

"This brings about sympathy, empathy, selflessness, and love."

Orochimaru walked in front of Naruto with a proud smile, he had made his decision. "Help me achieve my goal of ultimate knowledge so that humans can become even more of an advanced species by getting rid of the things that make us fools."

Naruto shook his head and opened his eyes, "while the gifts were nice, I'm not ruled by greed, desire or a need to change how humans act." His eyes were blank and icily calm, which was unnerving to any normal person, but to Orochimaru they were doors into the inner workings of the human species.

"I simply wish to uncover the world's deepest secrets." Orochimaru broke eye contact and motioned to all of the papers, scrolls and books. "I am a scientist; I wish to uncover how the natural world works…besides ignorance is bondage and knowledge is the key to unshackle us to freedom."

"There is no need for me to have emotions such as desire and greed." Orochimaru stated, "But you do…" Naruto stated. Orochimaru chuckled, amused by the boy, "of course no human cannot have emotions unless they're mentally unstable…"

"As far as I'm aware you aren't a psychopath, but you possess an unnaturally high level of emotional control and emotional intelligence." Orochimaru admitted; he had been examining Naruto expressions and reactions by body language, facial expressions and the emotions in his chakra.

"Our meeting was of no coincidence it was destined by fate." Orochimaru changed the subject trying to convince him.

Naruto shook his head. "No…Everything that occurs in this world is of coincidence and is spontaneous. Controlled by chance and the circumstances of many factors coming together to form an event… you could say that everything that happens is even accidental."

"Fatalism is used to make humans feel better and content about the future. Humans fear the unknown so they fill the hole with symbolism and a deity."

Naruto turned to the door, "I would like to stay and continue, but I must be going to complete your mission." Orochimaru frowned, He wanted to continue and get Naruto on his side. He sighed, "Very well, your backup is at the south gate in the royal district." He said in in restrained frustration.

Naruto nodded and pulled on his cloak and quietly exited the room.

Orochimaru scowled at the boy stubbornness, and then slowly his mouth turned into a sly smile.

"He's perfect…"

* * *

><p>Naruto quietly walked through the alley ways of Imperial city; he was think back to his conversation with Orochimaru. Of course he believed that humans were capable of being both good and bad, humans never could be categorized as being completely good or bad.<p>

He believed that if humans were raised and taught to be good people than they would be. If raised wrongly they could become horrible parts of society. But no human had a definite path that their action would take them down.

At least that was the opinion he made by observation and evidence. He had more experience in philosophy than with humans, but he did understand things in more depth than other humans.

He probably got his beliefs from his previous life before he lost his memories.

Obito had said he had been very in tune to how the world worked…

Naruto reached the gates and walked to the large closed wooden door. Keeping it shut was a large wood plank.

About two dozen soldiers were gathered around the door with their elegant armor shining in the sun.

Decorated horses were being saddled up for riding. Naruto walked up to the group. One of the soldiers noticed him and whistled toward another.

Catching a more decorated soldier's attention, he nudged his head in Naruto's direction and then returned to his task of saddling up his horse.

The man that walked up to him, Naruto noticed it was the main scientist from the council room; Kabuto. He adjusted his glasses as light reflected off them, "It's nice to see you again Naruto-kun."

He was wearing the same armor that Guren had. He guessed that was a symbol of their allegiance toward Orochimaru.

Naruto bowed slightly, "agreed…Kabuto-san why are there so many troops?" Naruto looked at all the supplies and people around. It was like they were preparing for a very long expedition. Kabuto waved Naruto to follow, he did as told.

Kabuto led him to a wooden table with a map on it. There was a red line dotted from the south gate of Imperial city going down southeast to Kusogakure and continued through Hi no Kuni. It continued going down avoiding the scratched out leaf symbol and toward the southern coast.

"The conditions outside the gate are less than favorable." Kabuto explained, "For such a long journey we would need as much protection and resources as possible." Naruto tilted his head in slight confusion.

"Why are we travelling so far away?" He asked in curiosity.

The lands outside of the walls were considered uninhabitable.

Kabuto nodded, it was a valid question. "The farther away we get the more reliable and greater the parasites vitality will be." He adjusted his glasses, "We will gather samples as we travel on many different parasites to compare the time it takes for the healthier to decay than the lesser."

Naruto nodded. It made sense since the farther away they got away from civilization the more preserved the parasites would be. This was because they hadn't pursued humans and had kept a large majority of their fuel.

They needed a lot of various data if they were going to be accurate.

"What about the Dark Ones?" Naruto said as he shifted his weight in slight discomfort of their remembrance. Kabuto looked at him with his small smile-which Naruto had concluded was more alarming than disarming-and once again adjusted his spectacles.

"We can't do anything about them."

Naruto caught the shiny object that Kabuto tossed over his shoulder.

It was a happuri with the alliance kanji engraved on it.

Naruto looked at Kabuto as he walked away toward the front of the group, he got on a horse that was being held by a lesser soldier who was garbed in a beat up armor that had turned gray due to its age. He handed the reins to Kabuto and held the reins of another horse.

Naruto moved his hair out of his face and put the happuri on, farther concealing his features.

"Men!" Kabuto yelled, he received the attention of the party, he cleared his throat. "We will be going on a dangerous expedition that will cause many casualties…but it with also produce tremendous reward." That was all it took as the soldiers cheered at the thought of a hefty reward.

They all started to mount up.

Naruto walked up to Kabuto, "They're a bunch of greedy men." Kabuto stated; Naruto nodded distractedly as he observed the group he would be spending quite a while with. "They're easy to rally by their greed, but are quick to abandon that reward for themselves." Kabuto chuckled.

"Man is so selfish"

Naruto remained silent; of course these people would be controlled by their greed. They had to, to survive in a world that had collapsed in on itself. To every species the continuation of their existence was one of the most important things that motivated their actions.

Naruto was handed the reins of the horse that the lower soldier was holding. Naruto watched as the boy walked off. His horse was a paint that was grey with white splotches.

Naruto mounted the horse and tried to get used to the feeling of being on a saddle. He didn't really know how to ride a horse, but he would learn pretty quickly by observing the others.

Kabuto whistled and several large brutish men walked to the gate and lifted the large plank onto their shoulders and hefted it off. They walked off to the side and threw it onto the ground. Several other men then started to pull open the large door.

Kabuto unsheathed his sword; he pointed it into the sky. "Lets us begin!" He shouted.

"Hai!" The soldiers chorused.

The train of horses funneled out of the gate, Kabuto at the lead. Naruto got his horse under control and started to catch up to the others.

He passed from the royal districts into the slums.

He immediately noticed the differences between the districts.

First off the streets were flooded by people. They lined up on the sides to witness such a 'grand' scene of the imperial soldier's elites, many crowded with the commotion and causing only a narrow path to be available for the horses.

They threw streamers and various cloths at them as they cheered.

They were either sneered or praised then. The sneering increased the farther out they went.

Secondly, like he had originally stated, the buildings were closely knitted and many people could be seen from the balconies and window, also interested in the soldiers.

They reached the gate which was already opened with no guards whatsoever being stationed there.

They passed through the gate to begin their long journey.

Naruto closed his eyes, he couldn't fail this.

His master had put a lot on him…

* * *

><p>After two days of travel they hit their first stop in a small merchant town in Kusogakure. The expeditionist rode slowly into the town tired, chapped, and hungry.<p>

The town was next to a giant 100 meters tall wall that had a thick concrete interior and exterior , it spanned for as far as the eye could see. Empty guard towers sporadically lined the tops, they were spread about 50 meters apart.

The town's people were surprised by their arrival and scurried into their homes in fright. When they reached the end of the town that was closest to the wall, they were greeted by a small old man with a cane and robe.

"Greetings," He called out in a soft diplomatic voice. Kabuto nodded and got off his horse. "I would like to request the use of your lift to get over the wall." He said politely and bowed to the old man. The old man made a low sounding laugh.

"Of course, anything for soldiers of the Grand Alliance," He waved over several young men. "Prepare the lift for our guest." The nodded and dashed toward the wall, the old man turned back. "Please follow them."

Kabuto turned and whistled. The soldiers started to ride their horse in the walls direction. Kabuto remounted his horse and spurred it to gallop to the front.

Naruto remained on his horse, looking around the town. The people of the village looked on from doorways, windows, and balconies.

All with distrustful eyes…

Naruto clicked his tongue and pulled the reins, the horse was set into motion as Naruto narrowed his eyes.

Why were these people so tense?

He noticed a wooden lift pulling up several horses up on top of the wall. The other soldiers waited and laughed and joked, unaware of the harsh looks they were receiving from the villagers.

Naruto rode up next to Kabuto and looked at him. "What does this village do?" He asked, turning Kabuto's attention from yelling out orders to him. He smiled and adjusted his glasses, "They're meant to control these lifts…that's all."

Naruto took another look around and activated his Sharingan and looked Kabuto directly in the eye. "That's not all." He stated sharply, Kabuto eyes widened in interest. He chuckled, "What do you think is the rest?" He asked while leaning in.

Naruto closed his eyes, when he reopened them they were back to their icy blue. "How am I supposed to know?" Kabuto leaned back with a short laugh, "Of course you don't. You live in a cave." Naruto brushed off the insult.

Kabuto pulled his horse and started to off back to the front of the moved line. He stopped and looked over his shoulder, "Something's should remain unknown." He said with a sly smile while fixing his glasses.

Naruto ran a hand through his long hair and with a sigh he accepted the answer begrudgingly.

Naruto looked up a t Kabuto as he galloped away. He clicked his tongue and the horse started moving again toward the wall.

He waited for several more minutes until he was able to get on the lift. The five of so horses and supplies, several people caused the lift to groan and creak in protest, but the eventually reached the top.

Naruto dismounted the horse and walked to the other side of the wall and looked over into Hi no Kuni.

The once green forested region had been turned into a wasteland. The trees and grass were a dead rotted grey. There was no sign of life as the chilling winds blew through the area.

Naruto felt the tenseness in the air from the previously joyous soldiers.

Everything was about to change…

* * *

><p>(Wastelands)<p>

The air was thick, musky, and barely breathable. The soldiers continued to survey the surrounding trees, watching for any danger. Kabuto was riding along holding a map.

He looked up and held up a flat hand which halted their progress along the narrow dirt trail they were travelling.

He turned his horse around and with a serious face said, "This is the first town that we will search for Parasites." The soldiers nodded crisply and dismounted, pulling off supplies and weapons they were going to need.

Kabuto signaled Naruto to come to him; He walked up to Kabuto with his bow in hand. "How good of a sensor are you?" He asked, well more like demanded the answer.

"I'm able," Naruto said coldly, not at all liking Kabuto's new abuse of his power. Kabuto looked at him for a few moments.

If it had been up to him then Naruto wouldn't even be here, but his master had persisted. Saying the boys master wouldn't be happy if he wasn't allowed on this mission.

He could have gone on any mission, but he was put on this one due to his master's curious nature.

He grunted, "I need you to scout the area." He asked apathetically. Naruto nodded dismissively.

He definitely didn't like Kabuto's change in attitude.

Kabuto looked at Naruto with a passive look, "The Parasites hold a very small chakra signature. This is due to them having to keep some chakra in their host's body." Kabuto explained apathetically. Naruto nodded and walked down the small hill that leads to the town.

He silently snuck through the dead underbrush into the town. The town had only a few houses and some stores, a single main street ran through the middle.

Naruto leaned up against a building near the road on the northern side of the village. His hand formed a ram seal and he put his index and middle fingers onto the ground, he closed his eyes in concentration.

His senses spread through the area.

He first off sensed Kabuto and the others, they were waiting 'patiently' on the edge of the trees. Naruto focused more and found a few smaller chakra signatures that were filled with malice.

He opened his eyes and turned and met eyes with Kabuto. His eyes turned away, receiving the message. A dozen soldiers marched out fearlessly out onto the main street. They walked down it slowly, checking every corner.

Naruto pulled his bow over his shoulder and loaded an arrow. With cold eyes he jumped up to the rooftop, following the men down the street. Out of the corner of his eye he saw the rest of the soldiers surrounding the town on both sides.

Naruto looked over his shoulder at Kabuto, He was still at the tree line.

_Crack_

Naruto's eyes swiftly looked back around at the soldiers in the streets; one of them had stepped onto a bottle. They all had wide-eyed looks of fear. Naruto narrowed his eyes.

Naruto's eyes widened when even more chakra signatures appeared.

Suddenly hundreds of loud screeching noises sounded out all over the town. Close to 100 Parasites started to pile out of the houses, alleyways, and every possible place for them to be.

"Here they come!" One soldier yelled.

Naruto pulled back his bow and sent his arrow into the horde, it did little to nothing. "Retreat!" Naruto yelled in panic as he saw the horde get closer to the soldiers inside the town. He turned around and looked at the soldiers surrounding the town.

They were getting swarmed…

Naruto looked over when he heard a crack. He ignored the cries of angst and loaded another arrow. He spun around and sent the arrow straight into the head of a Parasite that was getting onto the roof.

More started to pile onto his rooftop.

He put his bow over his shoulder and sent chakra to his hands and threw several dozen chakra laced kunai and shuriken into the horde.

Seeing it do nothing he ran away from his rooftop as it was overrun. He jumped the gap to the next roof and looked over his shoulder.

The parasites were tripping and fighting to gain ground on the slick roof top and were crawling over the large amount of bodies.

Naruto jumped into the air and spun around facing them. He ran through several hand seals and formed the tiger seal in front of his mouth.

**"Katon: Gōka Messhitsu (Fire Release: Great Fire Destruction)"**

He sent a large intense stream of fire that spread over the roofs, it burnt and spread across the dried wooden rooftops in only seconds. It burnt the Parasites to ash in an instant; they screeched in agony and tried to escape the inferno.

Naruto landed on the main road as the fire died from his mouth. He looked at the other hordes and pulled out his bow once again, he loaded an arrow and prepared to fire, but he felt something wet fall down his forehead.

He looked up at the clouded sky as light water droplets fell to the ground. Naruto looked down and fired more arrows into the horde.

'Just a little bit more time,'

The soldiers were holding them off to the best of their abilities, but there were just too many. Some that were able to escape sat on the hill and watched in helplessness.

More started to separate and go for the others, Naruto closed his eyes.

The rain started to fall down in a downpour Naruto threw down his bow and started to go through several hand seals.

Lightning started to come off of Naruto's body, "Gomen…" He whispered.

**"Raiton: Kaminari Storimu (Lightning Release: Lightning Stream)"**

A large amount of lightning streamed from Naruto and flowed onto the ground and into the air, using the water and rain as conductors. A large amount of electricity converged on the group of soldiers and parasites.

Screams of pain reached their ears. After several minutes of electricity streaming through the area not caring for what it killed, it receded back and disappeared into the ground.

Naruto fell to his knees and panted slightly. The steady stream of rain was all that was heard…

The other soldiers couldn't believe their eyes.

In the middle of the town were the large majority of the Parasites,

And a dozen soldiers…

Smoke came off all the bodies as they had been burnt from the inside out. Their flesh had been burnt off, revealing bone and mushed organs. Their eyes were widened in shock and their mouths were agape in silent screams.

The other soldier's eyes were widened in shock. Even a thud didn't distract them from…

This massacre…

Kabuto smirked down at the tied up Parasite he had captured, it growled and struggled against its restraints.

He looked at Naruto who was kneeling down and looking at his hands with a blank look on his face, rain soaked his clothes and hair. Smoke came off him as well…

Kabuto smirked and pushed his glasses further up his nose, "oh my…" He said in fake shock.

The others came down from their shock,

"He just…" One said in dismay

"That little traitor!" Another yelled, the others yelled in rage too.

"Enough!" Kabuto yelled, He sent them a glare. "He saved us at the price of the others. Besides, they knew the risks." That silenced them, but they still looked bloodthirsty.

_"This will get interesting…"_

* * *

><p><strong>Man, I personally found this chapter boring and lacking...<strong>

**This is just a chapter to get things rolling really.**

**Things will hopefully pick up next chapter.**

**I'm still trying to get Naruto's personality and power level figured out, he will be pretty complex and powerful.**

**Feel free to drop a review if you'd like,**

**See Ya!**


	4. Phantoms of the Wasteland

**Yo,**

**Thank you for your patience. Life got in the way of this chapter, so I cant really apologize for living.**

**I realized I should actually make some notes about the plot so I wouldn't just keep winging it, Hehe...**

**I don't have every last detail, but I know points I want to make and reach. The rest will be off the top of my head. I like it that way cause I surprise myself sometimes with the things I come up with and it wont ruin the fun for me.**

**To stop myself from ranting lets begin.**

**Sorry if there're mistakes and shit.**

**Enjoy!**

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter 4: Phantoms of the Wasteland<strong>

The campfire reflected from Naruto's eyes as he watched the flames dance in the wind, the fire crackled and popped as the ashes floated up into the night sky.

The atmosphere was solemn and tense.

He could feel the murderous glares aimed at him. He closed his eyes and exhaled. He had killed twelve of the soldiers and another six had been killed by the parasites.

Kabuto had made sure to capture at least one of the parasites. He then excused himself and took it into his tent to perform some 'tests'. The wails and screeching had subsided long ago.

Only eight of them remained.

No one said a word as fire continued to crackle and pop.

Naruto looked blankly at his hands with a passive expression

He couldn't feel anything.

He was slowly losing any sympathy or morality that he had left. Like something was draining away his feelings.

He was becoming a monster…

He didn't care about the soldiers he had killed and that scared him. He didn't know them and they were probably assholes, but he didn't like pointless death.

He only felt hollow, like he had done it hundreds of times before…

Killing without remorse…

He looked up from under his bangs at the six soldiers in front of them. Various armor pieces had been removed and scattered around the camp. They help bandage each others injuries. They had disheartened expressions and had no hope in their eyes.

Just rage.

The movement of fabric caused each of them to look at Kabuto's tent. He came out with a satisfied look; he looked at each of them. "We made great progress today." He said in a calm cheery tone.

They glared at him. One soldier stood, "You call this progress!" He yelled while pointing to the laid out bodies of their comrades. The others nodded in agreement, Naruto stood and silently walked away from the camp, not wanting to stay any longer.

Kabuto pushed his glasses up his face, "Of course…"He said with a smirk as he watched Naruto walk away.

Naruto walked through the rotted woods in the dead of night with no particular direction in mind. He just had to get away and think; he definitely wasn't going to be able to do that in such a tense place.

After only a few minutes of walking he came upon a small pond of water sitting at the base of a cliff.

He looked at the water as the moon reflected off the surface and illuminated the water brilliantly. Naruto leaned his bow and quiver against a rock and threw his cloak over top of it.

He walked to the edge of the water and sent a hand through his dirty and grimy hair. He ignored the night's crisp wind and walked onto the waters surfaces. He walked over top of the water, each step causing small ripples, he reached the middle and stood.

He looked at the waters surface and let out a relaxed sigh.

He opened his eyes and look at his reflection in anger. His Sharingan out shined the white moon and glowed dangerously.

Suddenly Naruto's vision started to become black and a sense of drowsiness overcame him. His reflection and the world around him twisted into a dark nothingness.

A rush of pain filled his head.

When he opened his eyes he was in a lush green forest with a bright sun hanging above. He looked down at his clothing and found himself to be in some comfy brown robes. His height and hair length had decreased as well.

A soft breeze swooped through the area. Picking up leaves and moving the tree branches that had leaves on them, making them brush lightly against each other creating a soft soothing noise.

Naruto moved a bang from his eye and looked at his small hand.

He looked over to the side when in a storm of black feathers appeared a person in a white cloak with a blank white mask.

The figure gave off an overwhelming divine power.

Shoulder length spiky white hair fell smoothly down their head and the sides of their mask. His height and body shape suggested the person was an adult male.

"Who are you?" Naruto asked as the figure remained motionless.

The person said nothing and only motioned him to follow as he walked off in an intended direction. Naruto followed in curiosity, they walked through the forest and only in a minute they reached a house in the woods.

He saw a small blonde haired boy playing with some dogs.

The dogs noticed him and barked in joy and bypassed the mysterious person and headed straight for Naruto. The dog barked and jumped into his arms, Naruto laughed slightly and petted the dog; the dog barked in happiness and licked his face.

"Nii-san!" Naruto looked up as the blonde haired boy ran up to him, his dark black eyes wide in joy. He hugged Naruto around the waist and nuzzled his face into his stomach.

A warm feeling rose in Naruto's stomach as the young boy backed away. "Otouto." Naruto said quietly as he felt his head start to pound.

He had a little brother?

The dog jumped out of his arms and ran away with the other dogs.

The young boy grabbed his hand and pulled him into the small home. He immediately smelled the warm smell of home cooking.

The cliche warm cozy feeling hit him as well.

He looked around the room and found it pretty standard and not really notable. The room wasn't elegant or poor.

He turned his head when he heard footsteps, out from a doorway came a blonde haired woman with a slim figure.

Her warm blue eyes lit up on seeing him. She wiped her perfect white skinned hands on her apron and walked to him with a warm smile.

She wrapped him in a loving embrace.

Naruto felt shock run through him at the unfamiliar feeling, "Welcome home Naru-chan…"Her gentle voice sounded angelic to him. For some reason Naruto started to cry at he stood in shock. Tears dripped out of his eyes as he looked at the little boy, who had a bright smile, and then to the white man.

His ears started to ring and his vision began to blur. The images around him began to distort and once again be engulfed by darkness. The warm feeling disappeared and he collapsed to his knees into water. His eyes were blank and unmoving as tears streamed down his face.

They were in a blank concrete room with only tall walls and a slightly flooded floor.

The white man walked in front of him and kneeled down. His soft fingers brushed his tears away; tears fell from the bottom of his own blank mask. Naruto closed his eyes as the pain in his head and heart increased.

"Why?" He asked weakly as he looked at the dirty water. The masked man retracted his hand,

"Many untold misfortunes will fall upon you." He said in a calm gentle voice.

He stood, "You will find out when you decide too." He said mysteriously. He began to back up allowing the darkness to consume him. Naruto stood in alarm, "Remember what? My past?" He questioned in masked man disappeared into the darkness without another word.

Naruto looked down. He fell to his knees and punched the ground in frustration. Tears streamed from his eyes as he cried hollowly.

He didn't see the other figure that had been watching the whole time.

* * *

><p>Naruto opened his eyes as tears fell from them. He fell to his knees and yelled in angst and frustration up at the cloudless night sky.<p>

He felt so helpless and weak...

He just caught a slight glimpse of his past and he wanted so much more.

He stood wiping his eyes, his Sharingan eyes hardened into a cold mercilessness. His face returned to its passiveness.

He will feel those feelings once again.

No one will stop him from finding that happiness…

Naruto walked back into the camp. The soldiers were tearing down the tents and putting their armor back on. They didn't even give him a glance as they did their jobs, the fire was put out and the only sound was the shifting of fabric and the clinging of armor and tools.

Naruto looked at Kabuto as he looked at a map, remapping it. Naruto walked up to him and gave him a blank look. Kabuto looked at him and smiled coyly. "You look even more emotionless than before." He joked.

"Hn."

Kabuto chuckled in amusement.

Naruto looked at the map over his shoulder.

The path had been changed from going southward toward Konohagakure and rerouted toward Uzu no Kuni (Land of Eddies) in the east. They only had gotten a little bit out of Kusogakure so their position was good enough for a straight shot eastward.

"We will travel in the direction of Uzu and then find a boat to sail up to Kaminari no Kuni" Kabuto looked at him, "We'll then take the underground tunnels back to the interior of the walls."

"This was a failure of a mission." Kabuto said in annoyance. Naruto frowned, "Why are we going east when we can just go north?"

"There is no way to get in on this wall, Kaminari has no wall on their coast so it's easier."

"What about the villages with the lifts?" Naruto shot back.

Kabuto smirked, "Do you think they will feel obligated to let us back in?"

Naruto blinked, he was right they only let them out because they were under the Imperial Cities control and now a whole wall separated them from listening to them.

So that's why they looked at them like that...

Kabuto rolled the map up with a smile—He was getting really pissed off with all the smiling—and tied up his loose hair. "We have a very far journey...since the horses ran away." He brushed past him and picked up one of the many backpack that had their supplies.

"Grab as much as you can, but don't over lift, you'll get tired." He ordered them all. He set off into the underbrush. The soldiers filed after sending him glares and death threats. Naruto picked up a pack and followed after.

* * *

><p>(Later)<p>

Hi no Kuni used to be a prosperous forested country that had only a few mountains and hilled areas. There were canyons, ravines, and rivers everywhere that flowed and lined the borders of its neighboring countries.

They finally reached the coast lines of Hi no Kuni after several days of endless travel through the many hills and ravines. They had to avoid some towns with parasites and with the occasional close call nothing eventful happened.

"Ugh!"

_CLANG_

The soldiers dropped their packs in the sand of a beached area and stretched their sore limbs in the hot sun.

Kabuto wiped his forehead and smirked as he stood on several large rocks, getting a better look around. "Uzushiogakure is beyond this horizon." He said offhandedly. There was next to nothing on that island.

Naruto stood on a concrete walkway underneath the shade of a tree. The walkway led to a small town that could be seen off to the south of them. Piers and docks were spread along the coastline for the fishermen.

Naruto placed his pack on the ground and ran a hand through his dirty hair. He removed his happuri, pocketed it, and pulled down his mask to allow his face free. He walked down a few stone steps and felt the sand crunch under his sandals.

He closed his eyes and allowed the sun to soak into his skin. Opening his eyes he walked to the edge of the ocean. The tides calmly rolled in and out in a methodical rhythm.

His eyes saw the faint outlines of islands spread out in the distance. "We will look for a boat in that fishing village." Kabuto said after walking down from the rocks. They once again gathered their things and headed off to the village.

It didn't take them long to find a big enough boat to hold all of them. It had a small lower deck, a small captains quarters, one short sail mast.

They put their packs down below and all lined up in front of Kabuto.

"We will have to use the wind correctly to reach our destination." The others nodded, "You steer the boat." Kabuto commanded one of the men.

"Hai!"

Kabuto walked past them. "I'll be in the captain's quarters if i'm needed." The started to moving and looking around.

Naruto walked to the railing and looked at all the scattered islands.

He missed the look that Kabuto gave the soldiers.

After some time passed they were able to get the ship drifted farther into the waters.

After a slow build up they were able to get the boat moving at a decent pace with the wind and the were about an hour away from the shore.

The once faint outline of Uzushiogakure was now more prominent and noticeable.

Naruto leaned his back against the railing and let the sun soak into his skin. He had removed his shirt and was only in a pair of pants. The others had slowly undid their bandages and removed armor. They all laid out in the sun, basking in the rare warm weather.

Naruto closed his eyes and pointed his head upward, his hair loosely whipped and blew in the wind. He felt a sort of peacefulness and tranquility come over himself. He felt his defenses fall and he relaxed.

What a mistake that was…

Suddenly he was roughly grabbed by his shoulder, he was thrown on the ground and before he could react his arms were bound and he was gagged.

His sharingan found the smirking faces of the soldiers. Without a word one kicked him in the ribs, they all started barraging him with kicks and punches.

Several of his ribs broke and he surely had some internal bleeding. Blood leaked from his bruised mouth, his eyes were half-lidded. His body was bruised and cut from the abuse. He was not so gently picked up and tossed in random directions several times.

He was picked up and his legs hit something hard, he heard the sound of rushing water below him and panicked.

"Bye, bye!"

Naruto was dropped and within seconds felt the cold ocean water envelope him. He struggled against his constraint, he pulled and twisted his wrists trying to get any leeway. The rope cut into his skin and blood mixed with the water.

His eyes were wide in panic, the salt burned them, but he refused to close them.

Salt water flooded his nose and mouth that was being kept open by the gag. His stomach and lungs filled with water. He felt his consciousness leave him and his body became weak as he sank farther into the ocean.

Kabuto stood on the deck looking out over the waters surface, a satisfied look on his face.

The boat sailed along, it had only been a few minutes since they dropped Naruto off into the ocean. He had only went to the quarters so Naruto would feel less alert with him being away.

He knew that he didn't trust him.

He chuckled at how easy it was to catch him. It just goes to show at even the strong could be taken off guard if the necessary steps were taken.

He does admit that Naruto was strong, but he knew his master would obsess over the boy if he remained alive.

He adjusted his glasses, the sun reflected off them.

Kukuku...He was going to be Orochimaru-sama's only right-hand man.

He let out a loud laugh that made everyone look at him weirdly.

Clouds gathered above and waves started to awaken. Rain meticulously started to fall onto the deck. The weather had changed in only a few seconds.

Down at the stirring water's surface a gloved hand reached out and clasped onto the boat as it moved along. All along the boat nine more gloved hands latched on.

They pulled themselves up and reveal the top of a masked head. They had two tubes going from the sides of their lower mask into a small tank on their back.

The top of their heads were covered by a black helmet with fibre black goggles cover their eyes. They wore light armor over their chest, gauntlets, knee and arm pads, and swords strapped to their backs. Skin tight waterproof suits were under the armor.

The image of a rugged skull was placed in a different place for each individual.

One had the whole front of their mask painted with the skull. He gave several hand signals that were passed on to the others. He placed his hand against the boats side. His hand glowed blue and a black sealing formula formed.

The formulas of each connected into a linked chain that encircled horizontally around the outer edge of the boat and the chains went downward under the boat and connected at the bottom.

The ghosted masked one nodded to the two on his sides and slipped back into the water.

The each disappeared just like they appeared.

Like a ghost…

The circular seal matrix glowed red and the red spread along the chains and connected to each other. The complete seal glowed one last time and then….

_BOOM!_

A large explosion decimated the boat. debris flew everywhere as the tides swifted and twirled, trying to refill the huge hole that had been put in the water. The debris fell from the sky into the water.

In some places small chunks of flesh or body parts fell.

Off in the distance Naruto floated up to the surface among some wooden debris, his hair was spread out into the water, his skin was pale and his eyes were swollen shut his chest wasn't moving.

The rain fell relentlessly, covering the loud explosion.

* * *

><p><em>SPLASH<em>

_SLOSH_

The rough waves pounded against the sides of a cliff that overhung the ocean. There were sharp rock protruding out of the water. The tides pulled the water back and forth in a brutal fashion.

"Hmm, hm, hmm, hm." A soft hum sounded out from on top of the cliff. Legs dangled and kicked back in forth in a child-like way.

It was a girl about twelve or thirteen.

Her most noticeable feature was her bright red hair that ombres into a light pink. Her blue eyes shone in innocence and a small smile was on her pink lips. Her developing face and body had silky white skin that was unscarred and unblemished.

She was leaning back onto her hands and looking out over the ocean. Her red dress was slightly lifted at her breasts, signifying her growing maturity.

She was beautiful…

A small tan and white dog sat curled into her lap asleep. She continued to hum her tune, a wider smile came onto her face and she started to sing...

Oh, field flower that has bloomed,

Ah, somehow, please tell me:

Why is it that people hurt each other

And fight?

Oh, flower that blooms with the asphalt,

What can you see from there?

Why is it that people

Cannot forgive each other?

In the summer, the rain passed

And the blue reflected,

Small, it rippled

In front of me,

Without saying a thing.

What do you think

When your friends wilt?

With those leaves that do not carry words,

How do you convey your love?

The summer sun is clouded

And the wind fluttered.

I shall sing

The proof that life once existed

For those who do not have a name.

She finished her song and frowned slightly at the gathering rain clouds above, the rain had already started to fall out over the ocean. She sighed in frustration, she had been able to sneak away from all her Tou-san's men and now she would have to return and receive another lecture.

The small dogs ears turned up in alert and he hopped out of her lap. He barked and ran down a small trail that led down to the rocks below. "Tobimaru!" The girl followed down the asperous cliff side and gasped when she saw what the dog had found.

It was a boy…

His face and body was beat up and he wasn't breathing. The dog pulled his leg pant, trying to keep him from drifting away. She slid down the rest of the way and grabbed his wrist and under his arm.

She pulled him up and laid him in a safe place, she put her ear to his chest.

_THA-DUMP_

_THUMP_

_tha-dump..._

She gasped and tilted his head back and went to perform mouth to mouth, she paused. A blushed formed on her face. "What am I doing!? I don't know CPR." She gulped and moved a strand of hair out of her face.

She shook her head, a determined look came onto her face. She gently grabbed his chin and lowered her lips centimeters from his.

"What are you doing?" A groggy voice asked, Her blue eyes popped open and met his icy blue ones. She jumped away with a squeak and a red face. The dog barked and licked his face, He sat up and looked around.

She hid her face in embarrassment.

An awkward silence remained as the dog looked between the two. Well it wasn't awkward for Naruto, he was just waiting for her to get over what ever she was embarrassed about.

"Didn't you drown…" She asked coyly, still hiding her face. He blinked and nodded, "I was somehow able to get all the water out of my lungs by channeling chakra to them and using my Suiton (Water) release to remove it from my body...I was just resting and fell asleep."

She was about to speak a raindrop fell onto the ground between them, she finally peeked from in between her fingers, she stood and in a swift motion grabbed his wrist and led him up the trail.

"We have to get out of the rain." She said quietly, he didn't resist and followed, the dog trailed behind them.

She led him to a cave farther down the shore. Surprisingly it had someone's belongings in it. She walked into the cave and lit a fire in the middle.

She sat down and pulled her legs to her chest, looking away she blushed, "Come sit…" The dog ran to a corner that had a small bed and laid down in it.

Naruto did as commanded. He sat and looked at her, "What's your name?" He asked, she had saved his life.

He was in debt to her...

She debated on telling him and then sighed, "Inori…" She glanced at him slyly. He nodded and looked out of the cave at the rain. She blush at his shirtlessness, even all bruised and cut up he was better looking than any of the other boys her age.

She didn't have much experience with boys so she didn't really know how to talk to them. She was usually self-confident, blunt, and unashamed to ask anything to anyone, regardless of gender.

But now she was so nervous. He exerted this feeling of familiarity, but was also mysterious at the same time.

She had only felt like this one other time...

She took a better look at his face, she looked at his jaw, mouth- she looked at that for a little longer- his eyes, ears, and hair.

Her eyes widened...

"Naruto!" Naruto looked at her and before he could react he was tackled to the ground. His eyes widened as she wrapped her arms around his chest and she started bawling.

He couldn't believe this, she knew him?

He put a hand on her shoulder and pushed her away slightly. He looked her in the eyes and unknowingly activated his Sharingan. "You know me?" He asked sharply with a hard face.

She was shocked by his hostility. Fresh tear sprung up, tears of hurt. She got off of him and stood up fully, an angry look appeared on her face. "How do you not remember me!?" She shouted in frustration.

He stood fully and glared at her, "I don't know you." He snapped, his rational side was not reacting to the situation, there was something about this girl that actually made him feel emotion.

That scared and excited him.

A betrayed look appeared in her eyes. Naruto felt regret fill him, he blinked when she turned away, he caught her wrist before she ran away.

She turned to him and snarled, "let go." she said angrily. Her eyes widened when she saw regret in his eyes, so far the only thing she had seen was cold passiveness. Now a whole range of emotions ran through his beautiful eyes.

confusion, frustration, loneliness, and a look of being lost.

She gasped when he pulled her closer to him and turned her away from the exit. "Please help me..." He requested politely.

She looked at him in shock as her continuous blush grew darker.

She nodded numbly.

* * *

><p>(Elsewhere)<p>

A lone man sat in a chamber at a desk stacked with paper. The room was nothing special, just a bookshelf, a light, and a chair in front of the desk for visitors.

He scratched his chin length blonde hair and put his pen down onto his desk. He sighed and leaned back into his chair.

"_How did I get this position…" _He mused bitterly

After a few moments he opened his shocking blue eyes. He looked back in front of him at the ten figures kneeling in front of his desk.

He leaned forward and intertwined his fingers. "You're back." He said unsurprisingly. One in the front stood and bowed then saluted him. His black mask had a skull on it, his grey hair spiked out from the mask.

He and the other soldiers were wearing black tight body suits with black light chest armor, gauntlets, shin, knee, and arm guards. They had swords strapped to their backs and three kunai pouched on their lower back.

"We were able to eliminate the trespassers with no casualties, Minato-sama." The one standing said in a monotonous voice. Minato smile slightly, "That is good Phantom 1."

He looked at the others,"You all may go rest, i'm sorry for sending you out on such a simple mission." He apologized with a kind smile on his handsome face.

"Hai!" They all disappeared in puffs of smoke.

Minato looked at Phantom 1. "You may remove your mask, Kakashi-kun." Kakashi nodded and removed his mask which revealed another half-faced one. Kakashi pulled down a cracked Konoha headband over his left eye and used his other grey eye to make an 'eye-smile'.

"You dont have to apologize Minato-sensei." He said lightly and pulled out a book and opened it. Minato sighed and ignored the book. "We're so shorthanded these days. I just don't want to run your team into the ground with tasks lower than them."

"It is better to be over prepared than to not be prepared at all." Kakashi said as he turned a page. "You're the best squad me and the other leaders could put together."Minato said in irritation at his students laid-back attitude.

"Phantom can handle anything." Kakashi said wholeheartedly.

Phantom; the code name the old kage of Konoha, Suna, and Kiri gave to a specialized squad of shinobi from each of their nations.

Mizu had long fallen from not being able to hold it's infrastructure together and the economy and food supply collapsed from the overflow of people they took in as refuges during The Last Days. This caused them to have to spread out on the islands around Mizu no Kuni.

The survivors of Konoha came to Uzushiogakure and had taken refuge one the destroyed island.

Phantom was one of the few team that went to the mainland to complete tasks. They were a task force used for the most important missions.

Their alliance with both Suna and Kiri are on rocky grounds and he felt that if it came down to it the squad would fall apart at the orders of their old Kage.

Many of the people of Kiri held a grudge against them for collapsing their economy and Suna's Kage wasn't the nicest of guy's

War could not only start between them, but also with the Grand Alliance.

They had many run ins with the Grand Alliance and had been deemed a threat. They were named the 'Phantoms of the Wasteland' by the Grand Council.

Minato tried his hardest to keep the alliance afloat, but things were slowly sinking…

Kakashi watched his sensei go through his usual routine of emotions that was because a single squad also presented a whole string of problems. Phantom listened to each Kage, but their true loyalties laid with their destroyed villages.

No one said it, but they all knew it.

_CRASH_

They were cut off from their thoughts by a loud crash outside the room. They glanced at each other, Kakashi pocketed his book. The muffled voice of the guard came from outside. "Minato-sama is in a meeting with-"

He was silenced by another indistinguishable voice. A silence remained for a few moments until the door creaked open slightly and a man with a nervous face poked his head in. Minato raised an eyebrow,

"What is it?" He asked in slight amusement, the look on the mans face was hilarious. He opened his mouth.

_CRACK_

_SMASH_

They were surprised when the door came off its hinges and shattered on the floor. Kakashi unsheathed his sword and got in front of Minato's desk, his left hand ready to pull his headband up.

The guard laid uselessly on the ground knocked out. Minato stood with a hand on a kunai.

"Minato..." A devilish voice growled out.

"Minato...where is your daughter?" The now slightly feminine devil voice asked, Minato blinked when he recognized the voice, he molded his chakra and spread his senses out.

He lowered his kunai, "what do you mean, Kushina?" Kakashi looked at him in surprise, he lowered his sword.

_STOMP _

_STOMP_

STOMP

A woman stomped in and grabbed Minato by the collar of his haori.

She had an extremely pissed off looked in her violet eyes. Her long red hair was some how floating into ninetails. A scowl was spread across her pretty face.

Her whole demeanor promised death.

"WHERE IS OUR DAUGHTER!" She yelled in his face, panic and worry lining her raging tone. Minato blinked, "I believe she is in her room." He said as he scratched his cheek, "or she is with Haruno-san." He added.

Her eye twitched and she scowled and him, "She isn't anywhere in the compound or city." She said lowly. Minato sighed, He grabbed her hands and freed himself from the almost chokehold.

"I can guarantee she is still on the island." He promised with a smile. She looked at him darkly, "and if she isn't?" She asked.

He frowned, "She is always doing this, don't overreact." He comforted her, he didn't touch her because she might of exploded with anger. He looked at Kakashi, "please find Inori-chan." Kakashi nodded and put his Phantom mask back on and disappeared.

Without another word Kushina huffed and walked out of the room.

Minato chuckled, his family was going to be the death of him. Either from Inori's random disappearances, which caused Kushina to rage and blame him, or they just might decide to kill him when they're both pissed for one reason or another.

He looked at the door and laughed lightly, he stepped over the downed guard and the door fragments. He poked his head out and looked at all the horrified people that lined the hall.

He smiled,

"Anyone wanna clean this?"

* * *

><p><strong>Hope you enjoyed...<strong>

**Added a little light hearted stuff in this chapter, cause just pure angst and drama all the time can get a little draining on the brain.**

**I don't own Inori's song. (Just to be safe)**

**As you can see Inori is different than the Guilty Crown Inori, if you don't like it, I don't care.**

**Drop your thoughts in a review. You'll make my day, night or whenever.**

**See Ya!**


	5. Power of the King

**Yo,**

**Welcome, before we get started I would like to give you guys a quote that I thought of this week.**

**I want you guys to think about this, no matter what you believe in or see the world as. Open your mind if you're close-minded and open your mind farther if you're open-minded.**

"_**As long as the barriers of nationalities, politics, religions, wars, homophobia, racism, egos, and opinions exist; humans will always be separated."**_**- Me**

**Think about this for awhile, don't just simply throw away the possibility of this being true. See the world for its whole scale, not just your country or state or wherever you live. Each of these individual categories affect each other at one point or another and thats why they affect the world so much.**

**It's sad that humans continued to be separated by our differences and continue to kill each other because we are different from one another.**

**Sorry for getting all philosophical on you.**

**Anyway, Sorry for any mistakes.**

**Enjoy!**

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter 5: Power of the King<strong>

"It seems your student failed." Ohnoki said with a confident smirk.

They were back in the council room, discussing the latest news on the expedition. Obito simply looked at him and chuckled.

His black vortex opened and out came Kabuto. His body was shredded in many places and he was bleeding all over his body, his arm was missing and he had multiple burn marks all over. He was gasping for breath, his eyes were wide in shock.

Orochimaru didn't even blink at his sudden arrival. He stood and walked down the step from the high seats. He walked briskly into the middle of the room, his shoes clicked against marble floor.

The others waited in anticipation.

He grabbed Kabuto's jaw and pulled his head toward him, his golden eyes dilated.

"Where issss he?"He hissed, his tongue slithered out of his mouth and hanged out of his mouth. Kabuto mumbled something incoherent. Orochimaru's tongue slithered back into his mouth.

_CRACK_

He mercilessly hit Kabuto's head against the ground, breaking his nose and face. Blood dripped onto the ground as blood fell from Kabuto's teeth and mouth, the cuts on his face also bled.

Orochimaru sneered and let Kabuto's face fall against the floor. He stood fully and walked toward the door.

"He is is still alive."Orochimaru stopped and turned to Obito with a sharp look. "He survived and is currently on the island of Uzushiogakure." Obito smirked under his mask.

Orochimaru was so easy when he wanted something. He would do anything to get what he wanted.

He was controlled by his lust for power.

Obito turned back towards the others. Pein merely sat there with a bored look, he was uninterested in whether Naruto was alive or not.

It didn't matter to him…

"It seems that is also where the refugees of The Last Days are located." That caught their attention. They had heard the rumors and had sent spies to investigate, but they didn't come back.

While that was a good enough hint to suggest that they were there. They couldn't just assemble an entire army and march to what could be a deserted island.

It was safe to say that they were there because the Phantoms had been protecting the coast of Hi no Kuni for a very long time.

Obito smirked under his mask. "There are people there." He looked at Orochimaru, then Ohnoki, A, and Nagato. They knew who he meant.

"We cannot start a pointless war." A said uncharacteristically, he was usually up for a chance to show off military strength. But now was not a time to start a war with anyone.

They had enough problems already…

Ohnoki remained silent, but they knew he agreed.

"We can take any course of action, but whatever decision it is I want my student back." Obito said darkly as his sharingan shone threateningly.

Ohnoki flinched and A glared. They both knew that Madara was leaps and bounds above them. Ohnoki had seen it himself many years ago and A was not stupid enough to not see Madara's capabilities.

"let us discuss it then." Nagato intervened.

* * *

><p>(Uzu)<p>

This was soooo awkward…

Inori glanced at Naruto as he leaned against the wall with his eyes closed. He hadn't said a single thing in _10 minutes_.

They were supposed to be _talking_. Not sitting around just so Naruto could do _nothing_.

She huffed and stood, her face turning red with impatience,"Oi, Naruto." She said to him through clenched teeth.

He didn't move a muscle...

She glared at him and her jaw clenched.

How infuriating.

She grabbed the nearest object and threw it at him. She watched in satisfaction as a pan flew across the cave straight for his passive face.

But…

At the last moment his eyes opened and he caught the pans handle in his hand. He lowered the pan and looked at her.

"Hai?" Her eyebrow twitched at his easygoing answer, she didn't know whether he meant to act so cool and calm all the time, but it was making her angry at his seemingly inability to sense the awkward atmosphere he was creating.

She pinched the bridge of her nose and sighed, "What were you doing?" She asked to remove her nervousness. She may have been acting somewhat semi-calm about this, but in actuality she felt like she was going to melt into the floor because she was so nervous.

She was shaking and her stomach was doing flips. She couldn't look at him for more than a few moments.

It was too hard, she felt so many emotions at seeing his face again.

Anger; for him disappearing.

Confusion; for where he went and what he had done.

Joy; for knowing he was alive.

Admiration; for him looking so strong and handsome…

"…"

Scratch that last one…

She looked at him with a blush, damn her hormones. "I was making a mental image of the surrounding area." She cleared her throat and looked away from him.

"That's weird." She mumbled, he frowned. "I want to know my surroundings at all times." He said calmly with a shrug, he definitely wasn't going to let his guard down now.

Not after being thrown off a boat into the cold ocean and for not knowing the true numbers of the parasites in that town, which had caused him to be thrown off the boat in the first place.

He needed to improve a lot…

She sighed at his paranoid answer, yeah he was terrible at seeing her attempts of jokes.

He was just so different…

He hadn't smile or laughed. His face had remained in a frown or just passiveness. It was unnerving at seeing those looks on his face.

He sat and looked at the fire in the middle of the cave, "lets talk." The rain had turned into a light drizzle at this point. Tobimaru slept peacefully in his small bed.

Inori sat across from him and pulled her legs to her chest, concealing the lower half of her face. Sadness entered her eyes as a far off look appeared on her face.

"We met when we were kids, we were about nine or ten." She started, "I met you when I had ran away from my house to get away from all the attention." She chuckled.

"My parent hired tutors all the time." She closed her eyes, "my parents were around, they just wanted me to get the best possible chance at life."

"They do now and have always treated me like a princess." She said somewhat bitterly, a lonely look appeared in her eyes.

Even though everyone wanted to be her friend, she didn't make any because no one wanted to be acquainted to her, but her parents.

Naruto frowned as his heart clenched.

Why was _this_ girl making him feel such strong emotions…

"The villagers treat me like one too." She smiled slightly, "Sometimes its great, but it can get kinda annoying." She looked him in the eye. He was taken aback by her raw emotion.

"I loved all of them." She pushed her legs forward and leaned back onto her hands, she looked at the rocky ceiling. "I then met you in that forest."

Naruto's head started to hurt, he put a hand over the right side of his face. Inori continued, not noticing, she smiled at the memories. "To make a long story short we became best friends." Naruto clenched his teeth, sweat fell down his face.

"It's not enough," He grunted and glared at her, his Sharingan spun to life. "I need more…" He put his other hand onto the floor and almost slumped completely over, but he held himself up.

She blinked in surprise, "are you okay?" She said urgently, she crawled over to him and put a hand onto his forehead. He didn't react to her touch, he grabbed her wrist and pulled her closer to him, almost making their bodies touch.

"I don't have a cold." He said irritatedly, "tell me more." He commanded, his breath came out in harsh pants, his head was pounding and his ears were ringing insanely loudly.

She looked at him in surprise, his harsh eyes soften and he let go of her wrist and sighed, "Gomenasai…" Inori scooted away from him. she looked down, "alright…" She mumbled.

* * *

><p>(Flashback)<p>

A young Inori stood next to a tree. She was throwing rocks across a small river in front of her.

She had a frown on her cute face.

She groaned, "Why can't Tou-sama, and Kaa-sama be the ones to teach me!" she picked up another rock and skipped it across the surface of the water. She huffed and leaned her side against the tree, she slid down the tree onto her knees.

She sat there thinking for a few minutes. Suddenly the brush moved and Inori shot up to her feet. Out from the brush came a young boy with black hair and blue eyes. He looked around and then his eyes landed on her.

He smiled…

"Hello." she flinched when he walked closer to her, his smile didn't falter, but he stopped walking. Inori back away from him, a distrusting look in her eyes. "Who are you?" She questioned, her father had been very sure to instill in her that he had many enemies.

Ones that wouldn't hesitate to kill or capture her.

"My name is Naruto," he walked toward her, a disarming smile on his face. His black hair blew in the wind. He reached her and bowed slightly in front of her.

He looked at her, "It is nice to meet you..." His voice drifted off, "Inori…" She mumbled unsurely, his smile formed into a smaller one.

"Its nice to meet you Inori-hime." She looked at him in slight surprise. He walked over and sat down on the bank of the river and picked up a flat pebble.

"How do you know who I am." she questioned threatenly, he looked over his shoulder his eyes shone playfully. "Everyone knows the daughter of Hokage-sama and Uzumaki-sama." He threw the pebble and it skipped across the waters surface to the other side.

Inori frowned at his answer.

Now he was going to treat her like she was something extremely important. Like a doll that shouldn't be played with or touched.

He turned around once again and grabbed her wrist slowly, she blinked, he pulled her down to sit next to him. "You should relax," He smiled again, Inori's eyes went wide as she looked at him in the eyes.

She had expected him to praise her or something, but he was treating her like she was just another person.

Not many people did that.

They sat in a comfortable silence as Naruto skipped rocks, Inori threw one occasionally. Naruto looked over to the side with a frown, she followed his line of sight.

Out of the woods came a small puppy with white and tan fur. It sniffed the ground and its ears turned upward in interest, its black eyes looked at the duo, its tongue hung out of its tongue as it panted.

It barked in joy and jumped at Naruto.

Inori laughed as Naruto was tackled by the small dog. Naruto chuckled and the dog licked at Naruto's face. Inori picked the dog up and held him with his back against her chest, he tried to lick her face, but was not successful.

Naruto sat up and wiped his face, "You saved me hime-sama." He joked, Inori giggled and a mischievous look came into her eyes.

She looked at the dog and smirked.

"He's such a fierce beast!" She screamed and let the dog lick her face, she fell to the ground with a screech. Naruto blinked in surprise, but then he smiled.

He stood, "I'll save you Hime-sama!" He yelled confidently. He jumped at the dog and playfully tackled it, taking Inori with them. They started a small wrestling match with each other, changing sides and gaining up on each other.

Eventually they calmed down and laid in the grass looking at the clouds opposite from each other, the tops of their heads almost touching. The dog laid on Naruto's chest sleeping.

"Tobimaru." Inori said breathlessly, recovering from their match. Naruto tilted his head backward and looked at the top of her head, she did the same.

"The dogs name is Tobimaru." she clarified, Naruto looked at the dog. "What if he has a owner." Inori shook her head and rolled onto her stomach. Looking at the dog she said, "He doesn't have a collar," she smirked at Naruto, "So he's free game."

Naruto sweat dropped, "I dont think thats how it works." Inori giggled and Naruto smiled.

A warm feeling appeared in his chest…

Inori's mouth formed into an 'oh' shape and she shot onto her feet, "I should go," she said in slight panic. Naruto stood up with Tobimaru in his arms.

Inori jogged away, she looked over her shoulder. "You take care of Tobimaru for me." With that she ran into the forest.

Naruto sighed at her not being able to let him complain about taking care of Tobimaru. He smiled and scratched the dogs ears.

His face slowly lost all it's soft, happy, friendly, and caring looks and was replaced by emptiness.

There was no emotion in his eyes or face.

He was a blank sheet that didn't feel good or bad.

His hair started to turn into a white color.

"Interesting girl."

* * *

><p>(Flashback end)<p>

Naruto opened his eyes as the memories faded, Inori looked at him with a worried look. He sat up from the ground and put a hand to his head.

"You passed out during my story, " she whispered in fright, Naruto looked at her and slowly a small smile formed on his face. She looked at him in shock at seeing him smile again, he reached out and grabbed her shoulder.

He brought her into a hug…

She couldn't believe this, he was hugging her.

Her hands slowly wrapped around his back, tears fell from her eyes as she leaned into him. He put a hand onto the back of her head and an arm around her waist.

They remained like that for some time...

Naruto felt his senses go off as the area he had mapped out was invaded. He looked over his shoulder as he felt multiple chakra signatures, loud barking sounded out and came closer and closer.

Tobimaru jumped up and ran to the entrance of the cave. Inori noticed and separated from Naruto. "Tobimaru?" She walked to the entrance of the cave. Naruto touched her shoulder, his eyes softer than before.

"Someone's coming," He said quietly, Inori gasped and grabbed his hand. "You have to run." she said urgently, Naruto nodded and walked out of the cave.

He put his hand on the rocky corner of the entrance and peeked around it, he was slightly surprised to feel two arms wrap around his torso.

"Please come back to me…"Inori whispered weakly, Naruto turned around and nodded, she stepped back as he wiping her tears away.

"I promise, Hime-sama."

He sent chakra to his feet and jumped away, Inori backed away and clenched a fist over her heart.

"You better, baka."

She walked back into the cave and sat down, tears dripped out of her eyes, she pulled her legs to her chest and buried her face into her knees.

The loud barking continued to come closer. After several minutes, a figure in black landed at the entrance of the cave, several dogs landed next to him. The dogs started to search around the area with their noses.

The figure walked in, his black fibre mask had a white ghost painted on it. He removed the mask and revealed the calm face of Kakashi Hatake. Inori ignore him as he walked to her.

"Inori," He touched her shoulder, she looked at him with red teary eyes. He frown, "let us return home, your parents are distraught." On of the small dogs barked and walked up to him.

Kakashi turned to the small pug as it walked to him. "What is it Pakkun?" He asked as the other dogs gather. "There was someone else here." Pakkun responded lazily, Inori stiffened. Kakashi looked at Inori.

He stood, "who was here with you?" He said firmly, she said nothing. Kakashi sighed and looked at a small tan dog with brown highlights on his long ear and legs. He had the kanji for 'shinobi' on his forehead and had dark, circular markings around his eyes.

"Bisuke, take Inori back home." The dog nodded, "Hai." He bit Inori's dress and pulled it.

Inori stood and glared at him, "Where are you going?" She asked, already knowing the answer. Kakashi looked at her sternly, "I'm going to find this person who was here." He narrowed his eyes.

If she knew someone was here, than something was going on for her not to talk or someone had been able to sneak onto the island unnoticed.

Either way the island had been infiltrated and he couldn't let someone leave and give away their position on the island.

He couldn't allow the Grand Alliance to know this information. They were mostly likely suspicious already.

So getting confirmation would be the best way to go about it.

Kakashi walked to the entrance of the cave, he tilted his head as a rock flew past him. He looked at Inori, she looked at him angrily."Don't hurt him…"She said threatenly.

Kakashi sighed and faced her, he pulled his headband up and looked her in the eyes with his Sharingan spinning.

Inori's eyes dulled as she dropped a rock onto the floor. He lowered the headband and turned around.

"Make sure she gets home safely, Bisuke." The dog barked as Kakashi and the other dogs jumped away.

Inori slowly put one foot in front of the other. Bisuke sighed, and pulled on the hem of her dress.

* * *

><p>Naruto sped through the trees of Uzushiogakure at a high speed. There were puddles on the muddy ground and water dripped from the trees leaves. The rain should cover his scent enough for him to escape.<p>

Naruto tensed and looked over his shoulder, he saw several black objects speeding past him, he dropped down to the forest floor and spun under one of the objects. It landed onto the ground and revealed a dog.

Naruto narrowed his eyes as several other dogs landed around him. A man appeared in the trees crouching down. Naruto's hand clenched and his Sharingan activated.

This man was strong…

Kakashi was surprised to see an almost extinct doujutsu in this boys eyes. Kakashi pulled up his headband behind his mask and examined his eyes.

Yep, they were real.

He stood on the tree branch. "I don't want to hurt you." He said sincerely, he had killed kids that were recruited to the Imperial army.

They were killed with the heaviest of hearts.

He had to kill them because they were brainwashed into thinking he was the enemy. When in actuality there was no such things as enemies or hero's in this world.

Only survivors.

But this boy did have any signs of an allegiances to anyone. Kakashi held up his arms to show he didn't want to fight.

Naruto looked for anyway to escape. He had nothing to defend himself with and his body was weakened from his little swim.

He could use his chakra, but he wanted to save it for the long water walk he had coming up. He felt the man's chakra again. He had a large chakra pool, but something was significantly draining it.

His eye…

He met eyes with him and glared. Kakashi felt multiple layers of Genjutsu come around him. The world twisted and swirled into an empty blackness, nausea came over him as his body became numb.

"Impressive."Kakashi whispered.

He sent out a large amount of chakra and dispersed the genjutsu's. He looked around and found his dogs and the boy to be missing.

Kakashi jumped toward the loud barking and found another Phantom member holding Naruto under his arm. Kakashi recognized him immediately.

Kakashi landed as his dogs dispersed in plumes of smoke, "Phantom 2. What are you doing here." Phantom two stood and looked at him, his black ponytail swung in the wind as his eyes looked at the boy.

"I was passing through on a mission to travel to Rebun island to deliver a message." He said in a monotone voice, he looked at Naruto. "I just happened to be passing through and found him fighting your hounds."

He handed him over to Kakashi and nodded, "I would like to be informed on the fate of my kin." He said in a calm voice.

Tobimaru ran from the bushes and growled at Kakashi.

Kakashi smiled under his mask, "of course."

Off to the side, protruding from the trees was Zetsu, his mouth was twisted upward in a dark smile.

* * *

><p>"Look at this," Kakashi handed Minato a happuri with the kanji for alliance on it. Minato frowned as he examined it. "as I feared…" Minato said disappointingly.<p>

"He was able to make a genjutsu that affected sight and sense of balance, a neurological feeling. It really felt real." Kakashi said in praise. It was hard to make a genjutsu feel real, the boy was just unlucky enough to have encountered a veteran shinobi.

Minato looked to the side at Naruto, who was hanging from chains that attached to the ceiling.

The cell had ruff grey concrete walls and rusty bars, there was no bedding or appliances.

Naruto swung methodically back and forth in a slow rhythm. He now had a white shirt on so he wouldn't freeze in the cold cell. His hair was matted down by grim, sweat, dirt, and salt.

"We can't kill him." Minato admitted, not now at least. They first needed to know his motives and why he had the Sharingan.

Kakashi walked across the cell and tilted Naruto's head upward toward him. He looked back at Minato for confirmation, he nodded and Kakashi put his hand in the ram seal.

"Kai!"

Kakashi backed away as Naruto's eyes shot opened as he gasped hungrily for air, his body shivered as the chains rattled due to his sudden movement. Minato walked forward, his eyes were set into a cold blue.

He grabbed Naruto's chin and made him look at him. "Who are you?" He commanded, losing all his compassion. Naruto merely looked at him, not saying a word.

"Your chakra is sealed, and it doesn't matter if Inori knows you." Kakashi said matter-of-factly. Naruto looked at them blankly, Minato sighed, "Gah!" In one swift motion punched Naruto in the gut, making him lose all his air. he rocked back and forth as he groaned in pain.

Minato paced in front of him, "Why are you here?" He continued, Naruto glared at him from under his bangs, he was panting and his stomach had a giant bruise on it.

"Ah!" Minato kicked Naruto in the ribs, Minato glared at him.

"Have it your way."

* * *

><p>"Let me go!" Inori yelled in rage as she tried to get to the bottom of the dungeon. She was being held back by two guards.<p>

She had been put under a genjutsu and was ordered to return back to the village. She had reached to village when she was finally released.

"Hime-sama, you mustn't." One of the guards pleaded in fear, this girl was frightening when she was angry.

Just like her mother…

Inori kneed him in the balls

He yelped and fell to the ground holding his crotch, Inori turned toward the other guard, fire burned in her eyes. He gulped and lunged for her, she ducked under him and ran down the stairs to the lowest level of cells.

The guard ran after her.

Inori ran as fast as she could, she ran past the empty cells, her footsteps echoed off the walls.

She ran fast when she heard the sound of a beating and groans of pain,

"STOP!" She yelled with everything she had as she reached Naruto's cell, she ran in without a second though, pushed Minato out of the way and covered Naruto's body with hers.

Minato was stunned by her intervention, Kakashi frowned. She glared at his with tears falling out of her eyes. The guard covered his face in embarrassment.

Total defiance was in her eyes...

"What is the meaning of this Inori-chan?" He asked in confusion. He felt regret build up inside him at the thought of hurting his daughters feelings.

"He's my friend!" She yelled at him angrily, Minato narrowed his eyes. He looked at Naruto's bruised face, their blue eyes met.

Naruto was completely calm about this…

"How do you know him?" He questioned suspiciously. He didn't believe it mattered. Inori looked at Naruto, he nodded to her.

"In Konoha…"She said seriously, her eyes were totally truthful. Kakashi sighed and walked up to Minato, "she doesn't have a genjutsu on her, so shes not under his control." Minato nodded as he looked at Naruto.

"You were a citizen?" Naruto nodded, not knowing for sure if he was or not.

Surprisingly, Minato smiled.

He scratched the back of his head sheepishly, "my bad…" He said goofily, his friendly personality returning.

"But I still want you to explain why you are apart of the Imperial Army."He said strictly, Naruto nodded. "Free him Kakashi." Minato commanded.

Kakashi walked to Naruto and unshackled him, He fell to the floor and was caught by Inori, she helped him keep his balance and stand by putting his arm around her.

Inori smiled, "Arigatou, Tou-sama." She said gratefully. Minato laughed, "Well I wouldn't have beaten him if I knew you would be able to get him to talk." He said with a regretful laugh.

Inori laughed at him and Kakashi just shook his head, no he wouldn't have...

He knew that Minato was prepared to kill the boy, regardless of his relationship to Konoha or his daughter, in fact he knew that Inori knew him, but still went ahead and interrogated him anyway.

It was only the fact that Inori knew he was alive and here that he was freeing him.

Minato knew what it took to protect his people, no matter the costs he was determined to do so.

But his weakness, like all human, was his family.

He couldn't stand to see his girls in turmoil...

Naruto's eyes widened when he felt his stomach burn and his chakra break the seal placed on him, he looked up and saw that only Minato had noticed his seal being broken.

Minato's eyes widened when Naruto looked at him in shock.

Kakashi walked out of the cell door. He almost ran into a confused Kushina, "Ah, Kushina-san." He said with an eye smile. Kushina smiled at him pleasantly.

"Where is my daughter, Kakashi-kun?" He could see the underlying threat in her voice.

He turned back to the others and pointed to said girl.

Naruto looked at Kushina and collapsed to his knees and put his hands on his face as his whole body burned, his chakra skyrocketed, causing everyone to notice the change.

The other were frozen by the potent chakra, and murderous KI.

Inori yelled at him urgently, she pulled his hands away from his face. His hair slowly started to get white highlights and his eyes turned to a golden color. He grabbed both of her wrist with his left hand.

With surprising strength he pushed her onto the floor. His face was twisted into a vile smile. She looked at his eyes, in complete shock.

His slitted pupils dilated, as his smile almost split his face. Inori felt something be broken inside her as a mysterious power flowed through her body.

A blue circle appeared. Multiple circles sat in the middle of the outer circle. It had six slim diamond shapes protruding from the inner circles out to the very edge of the bigger circle. Two crests spun around the outside of the circle.

Silver streams spun and whipped around the circle, forming a barrier. The streams cut gashes in the ground, wall, and ceiling.

A blue light appeared on Inori's chest. Naruto used his right hand to reach into it.

Inori's eyes went wide as she felt like her soul was being pulled from her body. Her body arched into Naruto's as he started to pulled out a long broadsword. Their hair whipped under the whipping streams of power.

It had a large black handle that was a wide as the whole sword, but was cut out at the top of it to place the hand. It had long black blade that curved up at the tip. It had a pointed tip, but it was blunt on more than half of the top side. The edge of the blade was silver and had small rectangles at the tip of the blunt side.

_SLASH_

_CRACK_

_BOOM_

The back wall was cut into pieces and in collapsed the ground from the outside, creating an opening to the surface.

Rubble riddled the room, and the dust made it impossible to see anything. Kakashi, Kushina, and Minato coughed violently. The cloud dispersed some, revealing both sides to each other.

Naruto looked at the sky and smiled wickedly. He then looked at Kushina, "**I think I might have some fun before I capture you." **The others were shocked by the change in his voice.

_SWOOSH_

The dust was cleared when Naruto jumped out of the cell into the open sky, like a suction he pulled the dust with him into the sky, rubbles and debris flew out with him. The silver streams cut at anything in their path, they cut the ceiling and the rubble hill.

More rocks and dirt collapsed into the cave. Minato's eyes widened when he spotted Inori about to be smashed under some rocks. In a burst of speed he was next to her.

"Rasengan!" He destroyed the rock with a swirling blue sphere. He glared up at the sky. while he cradled Inori's form.

_CRACK_

Suddenly cracks began to form from the cuts on the ceiling and walls , Minato stood with Inori in his arms and ran to Kushina, Kakashi, and the guard.

"Grab on!" He yelled, they complied and grab his shoulders.

They disappeared in a yellow flash.

* * *

><p>Naruto flew high into the sky as he held the sword behind him, the rocks and debris flew with him for a few moments, but then fell down to the village below, crushing buildings.<p>

He did a front flip and landed on another blue circle. He surveyed the village below.

The destroyed buildings of Uzushiogakure had been rebuilt, the repairs were quite noticeable. The Uzumaki swirl was on a large number of the buildings. The village only took up a small portion of the surprisingly large island.

The people scurried around below, the people closer to the rising plume of smoke ran to it. While the others went on their merry way.

The ground collapsed more, causing the rising dust to thicken.

Naruto's twisted smile widened.

With the utmost easy he lifted the large sword and pointed it down at the village. Dozens of small black drops formed out of nowhere and converged at the tip of the blade, forming a black sphere.

More of the drops formed out of thin air as the sphere grew larger.

Naruto's golden eyes grew wide as his pupils dilated, his white hair whipped in the wind as he laughed joyously.

"**DIE!**" He yelled.

The black ball glowed blue and a white light blinded everyone.

_BOOM!_

* * *

><p>(Naruto's Mindscape)<p>

"AGH!"

_SPLOSH_

Naruto writhed in pain in the water of his mindscape. He felt his entire body being destroyed down to the very last cell in his body. Shades of white appeared in his hair as his left eye turned gold.

From the shadows of the large room out came the man in the white cloak. He calmly walked to Naruto and kneeled down next to him.

He touched Naruto's forehead and Naruto felt all the pain leave him. He panted as sweat fell down his face. The white highlights faded and his eye returned to its ice blue.

He looked at the blank mask of the cloaked man, "What is going on?" He said weakly, the cloaked man stood and looked to the side.

Naruto followed his eyes and gasped in surprise, he sat up causing the water to splash around him.

The cloaked man held his arm to the side, his palm toward. The ground rose up in a cylinder, the concrete morphed into a throne.

The man sat and laid his head on the palm of his hand and crossed his leg over the other. "This is the _Power of the King_." He said mysteriously, Naruto looked at him.

"What is that?" He asked urgently, he glanced back over to what had shocked him before.

"Your power." The man said lazily. Naruto glared at him and stood, "Why don't I remember then?" He yelled in anger. The man shook his head, "You sealed your own memories."

Naruto's eyes widened as he back away, "No."

The man stood, "You did, all because you became too human and regretted doing the job assigned to you." The throne crumbled into dust and the man walked back toward the darkness.

"It's not surprising considering you were originally human from the start." Naruto clenched his fists together, "who are you!?" He shouted in confusion and anger.

The man stopped walking and looked over his shoulder, "The answer is simple,"

"It is one that you can find within yourself." He said mysteriously.

"Why wont you tell me?"Naruto asked, his resolve weakening.

"I don't want you to become me." He answered simply. Naruto looked at him in surprise. The masked man lifted his arm up in the direction that he had looked before. Orange chains sprouted from his sleeve and shot into the darkness.

"**ROAR!**"

Violent waves beat against them and the walls cracked from the loud roar. The sound of thrashing around signified something struggling in the darkness.

The masked man gave him a sideways look. "You should get your body back before something happens."

Naruto nodded and disappeared from his mindscape.

* * *

><p><strong>Cliffhanger! Shit! <strong>

**Yeah so the reason there are cliffhangers is because I usually make the chapters 5k-6k so it just happens to fall on some exciting stuff, so that's the reason why.**

**or I just want to tease you...**

**Poor Naruto, he's always getting captured and knocked out. This is probably the last time though. **

**All the mysteries too!**

**I feel weird about this chapter, maybe I could have worded some things differently, or changed some things around, oh well. **

**I realized that fanfiction is messing with my documents. It either deletes or changes a word, splits a word or few away from a paragraph. I don't know what the problem is though.**

**I tried to describe the Singer's Sword as best I could, but I encourage you to look at my profile and find the picture of it in the link or look it up online. Just in case you've never seen what it looks like in Guilty Crown, I did it no justice.**

**Also I might find some pictures of other things that need an image to be understood.**

**On a side note, I have also have some story summaries up in my profile, so go check those out if you're interested in future projects.**

**Drop a review if you'd like, **

**See Ya!**


	6. Crescent Sun

**Yo,**

**Welcome to another chapter. Had some serious writers block so I went ahead and started _TWO_ other stories. Quite the writers block if you ask me. If you're interested, go check them out.**

**I was lacking at the beginning of the chapter, but it gets better as it goes on.**

**Sorry for any mistakes!**

**Enjoy!**

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter 6: Crescent Sun <strong>

_BOOOOOOM_

A large beam of blue energy fired from the concentrated ball of energy. The beam was lifted upward at the last moment and fired barreled into the ocean. A large explosion spewed water high into the atmosphere.

The explosion was at least 50 meters wide and triple the height.

The vibration broke the windows of the houses and the vacuum of air whipped and turned the air causing the trees and houses to shake. The earth shook from the impact the beam had on the oceans bottom.

The shaking slowed as water droplets rained from the sky over the coastal part of the village.

Naruto grabbed onto his head as the large sword disappeared from his hand into particles of dust. This caused the blue circle underneath him disappear. He plummeted to the earth as he screamed in pain as his internal struggle for power commenced.

Minato lowered his three-pronged kunai with a sigh. He looked at Kakashi as Naruto fell from the sky. "He changed the direction of it." Kakashi voiced in confusion.

Minato looked at the kunai he had not used. "I believe there is something with that boy that we don't understand." He murmured

Naruto crashed into a rooftop with a loud explosion. sending tiles and debris everywhere. The civilians fled the area. Minato and Kakashi jumped up and waited on the edge of the rising plume of smoke.

"Ahhhh!" A loud, painful scream alerted them. The smoke was blown away by a sudden surge of power. Naruto was on his knees holding his head, he was hunched over screaming and twitching.

Minato acted quickly and jump at Naruto while forming hand seals. He reached Naruto and slammed his hands onto his shoulder.

Naruto suddenly shot up. His eyes switched from blue to gold while his hair switched from white to black. A black swirl appeared on his shoulder and glowed red. It pulsed and then swirled outward and spread across his skin.

It formed into a large swirl that covered his entire shoulder. It continued to glow and pulse as Naruto's screaming subsided. His eyes returned to their blue as his hair was back to solid black again.

He sat on his knees looking at the sky as an impregnable silence prevailed. His eyes slowly closed as he slumped forward. The seal retracted and returned back into a smaller swirl and became black.

Minato scooped Naruto into his arms and touched his pulse. He sighed and looked at Kakashi, "Handle the situation here." With that he disappeared in a yellow flash.

He reappeared in their hospital and walked down the hall, ignoring all of the nurses questions. He turned into a room flooded with nurses. He spotted a blonde woman ordering the nurses what to do.

"Tsunade!" His calm voice pierced her frantic yelling. Her auburn eyes turned to him. He glanced at the nurses. "Out." He ordered. They did as told. Tsunade handed her clipboard to a black haired girl with a pig as she walked out with a confused expression.

Tsunade glared at him. "What is so important as to have you interrupt me trying to save lives." She scoffed, "and don't tell me it's for this kid!"

Minato walked over to the white medical bed and placed Naruto on the bed.

"This boy was the one who caused that explosion." Tsunade looked at him in disbelief. She walked up and looked at Naruto with narrowed eyes.

"You're not lying." She stated. He wouldn't lie about something as serious as this. 'What is he?" She asked, looking him in the eyes. He shook his head, "don't know. That's why I brought him here."

Tsunade nodded, "I'll take a DNA test and evaluate his chakra." Minato smiled, "Arigatou, Tsunade-sama." She snorted and waved him off. "Go, I'll handle this."

Minato was about to flash away, but he stopped, "Oh, don't tell anyone that he caused the explosion or the results of his tests." He was gone in a flash without allowing her to say anything.

Tsunade looked at Naruto and sighed, "What a mystery you are."

* * *

><p>(A few days later)<p>

Naruto laid in the hospital bed with a peaceful expression on his face. He was in the hospitals garbs. He had faint scars and bruises of his injuries from the hard few days he had in The Wasteland, they would soon disappear.

A small grate popped off the wall and fell to the ground with a clang. Tobimaru poked his head out of the opening. he barked when he spotted Naruto, he jumped out and landed on his bed making it bounce slightly.

He walked on Naruto's chest and licked his face, when he didn't respond, Tobimaru whimpered and walked back to the foot of the bed, laid down and watched Naruto with sad dark eyes.

* * *

><p>"The results?" Minato asked as he and Tsunade walked the halls of the hospital. Tsunade turned into an empty office and motioned for him to follow.<p>

He walked in and she closed the door quietly, her eyes were hard and in slight shock.

"Well?" He asked with interest, Tsunade walked around and sat in the chair and sighed deeply. "He has both Senju and Uchiha genes." She said; Minato nodded. "The sword?" He asked.

She shook her head in a negative, "No signs of any genetic mutation or altering that would cause such a phenomenon in Inori's DNA." Tsunade read off another list from the one she read for Naruto.

They had tried to put a link between them, but nothing had shown up.

"He was born with the DNA. Either getting the genes from one parent or both." She flipped the page and nodded to herself, "I can guess it's the latter."

Minato frowned, "He is old enough to have been in Konoha before The Last Days, so we can assume him telling me that he was a citizen is true." Minato held his chin with a thoughtful face.

"We just have to find who his parents are to make sure." Tsunade frowned at that. "The blood samples of both of the near-extinct clans were lost during Konoha's destruction." She said in disappointment.

"So, we can't confirm anything without blood samples from every Uchiha and Senju that was in Konoha from one year before his birth and to The Last Days."

"We also don't know his date of birth."

Silence prevailed among them, "The fact still remains, the boy must have an eye kept on him." Another voice said. Tsunade and Minato turned to the war hawk, Shimura Danzo.

Minato glared, "Why are you here Danzo?" He commanded with an angered face. Danzo looked at him and then bowed, "I was coming to personally retrieve the report on what had caused that explosion." He stated.

Tsunade narrowed her eyes, "You never do anything yourself." She bit out harshly.

They both hated him, everyone hated him.

He was only alive because they were without evidence to do anything to him. They couldn't charge him with something they had nothing to back up that he did.

"True," He did not deny it. "I also wanted to set forth a proposition for you Minato." He said as he showed them a folder. Minato walked up to him and took the folder. "It is for increased security on the coast of Hi no Kuni. It seems I have come at the right time to prove my point." He said, taking in the villages state.

Clever bastard...

"The fact that we only have the Phantoms on the coast means more of these incidents can happen. We need to take the proper steps to not allow the village to fall." Minato flipped through the folder as his frowned deepened more and more, "This is...*sigh*...It is a good suggestion, but this will mean our position will be noticed even sooner than we would like."

Adding a high number of soldiers on the coast would make them more noticeable because the chances of them coming against the Imperial armies forces in the Wastelands would skyrocket.

"We would have been found sooner or later. This will allow us to be more protected from or closest threat."

"Doing this would weaken the forces on the island. When we are noticed and they realize what we are doing the will use Kawanari to attack us from the north." Minato said smartly, noticing the flaw.

"The forces stationed there by the Mizukage should be efficient enough. We can station several sentries there to warn us if they are attacked. We will take the necessary steps to move on from there." Danzo looked proud of his plan.

Minato ran a hand through his hair and glanced at the folder again. He handed it back to Danzo and narrowed his eyes at him, "Do you truly wish to protect the citizens of this village?" He asked sharply. "Of course," Danzo said without missing a beat. A silent battle waged between them, neither letting up. After several moments, Danzo spoke, "The most important thing is to protect our own interests."

"We can only look out for ourselves to retake our village and become back on top." Danzo gave nothing away about what he was thinking besides his words. "I would like to see the boy or the information he is present and had caused that explosion will somehow get out to the general public." His subtly hinted threat was easy to notice.

Minato walked past him without a word, Tsunade followed after, her heels clicked on the tile floor as they walked down to Naruto's room. Danzo followed behind with his cane hitting the floor in a rhythmic pattern. Minato slid open Naruto's door and they filed in. Tobimaru lifted his head and growled. Minato looked at him in confusion. "Tobimaru? How did he get in here?"

One of the Phantoms appeared in front of him. Their body type and long purple hair suggested that they were a woman. "He slipped in some time ago, we decided he was not a threat and left him." She said as she kneeled on the ground.

Out from the wall materialized a masked stone face. "He was able to get in through the vent." The face said. Minato nodded as Tsunade jumped at his sudden entry. Danzo glanced at the man in the wall, but his eye soon returned to Naruto.

He was surprised to see the boy sitting up and looking out the window. Tsunade followed his gaze and gasped at his sudden awakening. Her eyes narrowed in suspicion.

She walked up to him and crossed her arms. The others watched on, she then held out her hand. "Give it here." He turned his head as his tired eyes looked at her, "Give me back my chakra." He glared at her defiantly, his fist clenching.

She clicked her tongue, "give me the scalpel." She hissed. Minato's hand quickly formed a seal. "Agh!" Naruto screamed as the seal spread over his shoulder and glowed red. He grabbed at his shoulder. He tilted sideways and fell out of the bed.

The scalpel fell from his hand and slid in front of Tsunade's heel. She picked it up as she looked at Minato, "That's enough." Minato waited a few moments then released the seal.

Naruto laid on the floor panting, his whole body felt weak and destroyed. He felt numbness slowly creep up on him.

"What...did you...do?" He panted as he tried to push himself off the ground with one arm as the other held his shoulder. Minato walked to him and kneeled down next to him, "It's a seal that seals your chakra. It also attacks your nervous system when it is activated by the chakra that the seal accepts as its user."

He put an arm under Naruto and picked him up and put him on the bed. Naruto fell back as he panted harshly. "I wish for your cooperation," Minato asked politely.

Naruto looked at the ceiling as he frowned, after a few moments he spoke."That person wasn't me...I was taken over by something inside me." He whispered into the room. Danzo walked toward his bed and looked down at him.

"How can we believe you?" He accused. Minato didn't admit it, but he agreed. "I can tell you that I have something sealed in me." Naruto said slowly, after a moment of thought. He knew that they wouldn't believe him if he didn't reveal this information to them.

Tsunade's brow furrowed, "Something sealed inside of you?" She put a hand on her chin. "The last time I checked all of the Jinchuuriki were alive and all the Tailed Beasts were accounted for," Minato lifted Naruto's shirt and revealed his abdomen.

He looked at Naruto's face and then looked at his stomach. He put his hand on his stomach and spread his chakra over the surface of his abs. Slowly a black seal fazed into existence.

It had a circle and a half crescent moon above it. Ten curved like tails spread from the center of the circle to its edges. Small links of chains came from the tips of the tails as if they were digging into his skin.

Minato stepped back as he evaluated the seal. Their seal knowledge was put to the test as they tried to figure out the complex language behind the seal.

"It seems that it's a seal that allows a very large amount of chakra to be used by the container, but the object or thing sealed can take over if it breaks past the containers barriers." He pointed to the ten curved tails.

"It also has the containers chakra suppress the object and keeping the object in no matter what, making his chakra a barrier", He said as he touched the chains.

"It also put the containers mental psyche at risk because it uses the containers mental health as one of the barriers." He pointed to the circle.

"It also has a backup seal that destroys the sealed object to be destroyed if the container is killed." Minato traced the crest.

"Amazing." Tsunade breath in astonishment.

"What would require such a powerful seal?" Danzo asked as he looked at Naruto, who looked equally surprised.

Minato shook his head, "The seal was made hastily on the spot if I had to guess. It isn't perfect and if an outside force acted on the seal, it could be broken from the inside even if a fraction of it is destroyed on the inside."

"Can injuries affect it?" Naruto asked, remembering the wood piece that had gone through him.

"I don't know, but it seems that your chakra is keeping it suppressed more than your mental state."

"So even if you get injured in that area you'll probably be okay." He said lightly, he looked at him. "We can also assume that was why you went crazy because you had an injury there and it cracked the seal slightly."

Naruto nodded as he sat up, "do you believe me now?" He asked. Minato sighed but didn't answer. He looked over to Danzo. "That is all we are going to question him today for, Danzo." He informed the Warhawk. Danzo stared at him for a moment, but something told him that he had no choice, but to listen.

He bowed and started out the door, Minato turned to Tsunade. "Could you check up on him as well?" She nodded and grabbed a stethoscope. The door clicked as a seal erupted from Minato's feet and spread along the walls. He sent away the Phantom members and looked at Naruto seriously.

"Seal or no seal. It doesn't let you off the hook for being affiliated with the Grand Alliance." Minato said calmly as Naruto sighed. Tsunade checked his heart with a stethoscope. "Those assholes caused this mess. They threw me off a boat." He said bitterly. He ran a hand through his hair as he glanced at Minato.

Minato frowned as he put a hand on his chin as he thought. He wasn't going to just blindly listen to Naruto's words, but it did make sense since he had not been blown up with the other soldiers on the boat.

He had to have met Inori during the time that the Phantoms squad was returning, so he had to have had a head start.

But for all he knew that was their plan. Let off a spy as close to the island as possible and try to escape before the Phantoms got to them.

Tsunade scanned Naruto with green glowing hands as he watched Minato think.

Naruto didn't care for the Alliance and he had realized he didn't really care for Obito at all either. He was just in his debt. Minato looked like he came to a conclusion and then glanced at his shoulder.

"That seal will activate the moment I see you as a threat or if anything comes and attacks this village," Minato said coldly. Naruto nodded in understanding. Tobimaru barked and licked his face. Naruto chuckled and petted the dog.

Minato smirked. "I think I found a name for that seal of yours." Minato said with a much more relaxed mood. Naruto looked at him as Tobimaru continued to try to attack his face.

"**Mikadzuki sanshīru (Crescent Sun Seal)**"

* * *

><p>Naruto walked into the hospital's waiting area, Minato trailing behind him. He looked around the room and spotted all the people waiting to receive the news on their loved ones. He was in a white high-collared shirt with gray pants with shin high sandal. He had a black face mask concealing the lower half of his face.<p>

He spotted Inori and Kushina sitting down. His stomach dropped when he noticed the worried look on her face. It tore him up knowing that he had hurt her in his rage. His eyes looked to the ground.

_The Power of the King_.

He remembered those words. It was the name of his mysterious powers that monster gave him and could be a link to his past. But did he really want to know now that he had caught a glimpse of the darkness that was inside of him? He frowned and remained silent at that thought.

Minato laid a hand on his shoulder, causing Naruto to look up at him. "She doesn't remember anything." Minato paused for a moment as he looked at Inori. "We told her that a powerful ninja had snuck into the village and tried to destroy it, but I was able to stop him." Minato's frown deepened.

"That ninja is dead." Minato's hand fell from his shoulder and he started walking toward them. "That is the story everyone has been told." Naruto walked behind him as his mind filled with questions "I told her that both of you were hurt by falling debris." Inori's eyes looked up as she gasped in surprise. Naruto looked at Minato's back as she sprinted toward them.

"Why not tell them it was me?" Naruto asked under his breath, his eye shadowed by confusion. Minato didn't answer as he just smiled at Inori as she ran up to them.

Inori crushed him in a hug, jumping into Naruto's waiting arms. She wrapped her arms around his neck and cried tears of joy. She mumbled incoherent words as Naruto closed his eyes and sighed in relief. This girl was special to him, he understood that now. No matter what he was, she was important to him. So he needed to do everything in his power to reveal his past so he could understand why they were connected…

And why he had such dark powers.

Minato smiled as Kushina looked at Minato with an uncertain look. Her eyes drifted to Naruto as he hugged Inori, she frowned. They knew that she had something to do with Naruto's transformation. He had reacted to her presence almost immediately, as if she was some trigger for his change.

It seemed he was okay now though.

Inori pulled back and looked at him with tears running down her face, but with a happy smile. "Tou-sama said you can stay in the village." She sounded so happy, it was hard for him to not smile, so he did.

It was small, but it was a smile.

She only grinned wider at seeing him happy. He was becoming the person she cared about all over again. Just seeing his face had brought up all of her incomplete feelings. Long ago, she had not been able to act on her feelings.

Now he was here, with her, and alive. He was aloof and seemed a little cold, but his kindness was still there. She could see it.

She turned to her parents, who were both smiling. "Can he stay with us." She asked innocently, her big blue eyes looked at them with full of hope. Minato sputtered, his fatherly instincts already told him that his daughter had a thing for Naruto.

"No way!" He said lightly, but sternly. Leaving no room for change. Kushina seemed to be on his side as well. Inori whined and pouted, "but why?" she groaned as Naruto looked away from the group, not used to these types of conversations.

"He's a boy, you're a girl, and both teenagers." Kushina not so subtly hinted toward what Minato was thinking. Inori blushed heavily, "K-k-kaa-sama!" She stuttered in embarrassment. Kushina giggled as Minato rolled his eyes.

Naruto tilted his head with a raised eyebrow.

"He can stay at Kakashi's," Minato said with a smile.

Ah…

He was putting him in the hands of his task forces leader. It made sense since Naruto almost destroyed the village and could be lying to him. Kakashi could watch after him as a proxy for Minato and would decide if Naruto was a threat or not.

Inori gaped at him with a disbelieving look, "That pervert!" She yelled angrily." You hurt me, Inori-chan." Kakashi drawled as he walked up to them, Minato and Kushina greeted him. Inori glared at him, "You're just like a perverted Onii-chan!" She stuck her tongue out at him as Kakashi grasped at his heart. "What did I do to deserve this?" He asked to the ceiling.

Minato laughed and put a hand on Inori's head. She glared up at him. He chuckled, "I believe we've all have had a long few days, let's let Kakashi take Naruto to his new home and then you can take Naruto on a tour of the village tomorrow."

Inori pouted but complied. She grabbed Naruto's arm and pulled him against her. She glared at Kakashi, "If you corrupt him, i'll kill you." Kakashi held his arms up in submission, but smirked when he saw Naruto blushing almost noticeably. Her developing breasts were pressed against his arm and he didn't understand why he liked it.

Kakashi laughed, "I would never think of it."

'_I could tell him about what he's feeling though.'_ He thought as Minato and Kushina laughed at him as they walked toward the door. Inori nodded to herself in satisfaction, proud of herself for instilling 'fear' into the masked nin.

She waved to Naruto as she caught up with her parents. Kakashi laid a hand on the boys shoulder as Naruto rubbed his arm, "So soft…" He murmured, his eyes filled with confusion. Kakashi patted the top of his head, "looks like I have a lot of things to teach you." Naruto looked at him with confused eyes.

Kakashi pocketed his hand and started out of the hospital. "Let's get going." Naruto walked after him in silence.

* * *

><p>Kakashi flicked on the lights as he walked into a small two bedroom apartment. It was simple with the master bedroom, a guest room, a kitchen, and a bathroom. "You're one of the top ninjas in this village, so you don't stay here often do you?" Kakashi hummed at his question and flicked on his kitchen lights, he tossed his keys on the table.<p>

Naruto walked into the living room and looked at the small table and couch. He turned at Kakashi's bare feet hitting the ground as he sauntered past him. He thumbed through a bookshelf and after a few shelves pulled out an orange book.

He turned and tossed the book to Naruto, who caught it with a raised eyebrow. "It will help you learn about a few things concerning Inori," Kakashi said with a perverted gleam in his eye. Naruto opened the book to a random page and read it. His eyes widened as his jaw dropped, a huge blush erupted from the top of his mask as he snapped the book closed quickly. "What is this?" Asked in slight horror, slight fascination.

'_I got another one Jiraiya-sama._' Kakashi said with a perverted smirk. "That my young roommate. Is Icha Icha Paradaisu (Make-Out Paradise)." Naruto looked at the book, "This is just smut." He said with a look of annoyance.

Kakashi sighed, "It's smut, but it has a compelling story based on a couples strong love and the obstacles they overcome to be together. You, however, turned to one of the many, _many_ sex scenes." He said with a smirk.

"Why would I need this-Oh!" It finally clicked for him. He glared at Kakashi, "I am not a pervert and this has nothing to do with Inori." He tucked the book underneath his arm and walked toward one of the doors.

"That one's mine." Kakashi pointed out. Naruto smoothly turned around and walked into the other room and closed the door with a slam. Kakashi rolled his eyes, "Sure this has nothing to do with Inori." He sat down on the couch and pulled out his own book.

After a few minutes he heard. "It is a love story...huh." He heard Naruto mumble. "The walls are very thin, so keep your thoughts inside." He heard Naruto inhale deeply.

He heard nothing from him the rest of the night.

* * *

><p><strong>Thoughts? <strong>

**Drop them in a review!**

**See Ya!**

**I'm going to be changing my pen name after this chapter goes up, so don't be alarmed. Just look for **_**Logic Over Logic **_**if you want to find me.**


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